Are So-Called Granny Bait Coins a Sign that Australia is Going Down the Toilet?

[acrellin]

OK, now this is a subject that really yanks my chain, and one that I think anyone who is involved with coins for any degree of time considers at one stage or another. I've had conversations with staff at both of our coin issuing authorities about just this, and unfortunately it often falls on deaf ears. Not always, but often.

The staff at both mints have targets they need to meet, just as the rest of us do in our working lives. Sales = an ongoing job. The lowest (?) common denominator, or put more politely, accessible designs are a low risk way of selling coins.

It's unfortunate that our designers aren't given the opportunity to run with a vanity project every now and then, one that challenges conventions or their own design abilities. Read the story about the 1907 high relief $20 for an idea of how someone in minting authority rebelled against the standard, a now timeless design. Anyone want to run for the President of Australia?

The fact that this question has been posed answers itself I think - despite the fact we have coins with colour / holograms or even with lights in their freaking boxes (that one really flipped me, I thought it was cool just for the audacity of it), I agree many of the ideas behind our current NCLT coins are stale. Not because they aren't innovative, but because they seem to be devoid of risk.

I nominate the 2008 (?) UK series of circulating coin designs as my favourite designs in the past few years, anything in high relief by the Perth Mint, and a few others. I like the idea of hobo nickels as a way of reclaiming the artistry of circulating coinage - some of them need to be seen to be believed.

You only need to flick through a Krause 1901~ catalogue to see what other countries are up to, it's a shame that innovation in design is disregarded as a path to commercial success by our issuing authorities at the moment, but there you have it.

Which current designs do y'all like?