15 March 2014

Looks bent to Rico


Lily Hay Newman has a Slate article about a new coin:
Coin collecting and physical media may be kind of last century, but they're not dead yet. The US Mint is still innovating, most recently with the curved— that’s right, curvedNational Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative coins.
The design is based on France's 2009 commemorative International Year of Astronomy Coins and the Southern Cross curved coins from the Royal Australian Mint. Whether you think special-issue coins are exciting or underwhelming, they are serious business. It's the law. No, really. The National Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coin Act, signed in August of 2012, stipulates that these coins must be minted.
The coins will be made in limited quantities and come in three tiers: 50,000 $5 gold coins (above), 400,000 $1 silver coins, and 750,000 half-dollar clad coins, which means they are made of 92 percent copper and 8 percent nickel, compared to ninety percent gold or silver and ten percent alloy or copper in the other two. The coins will cost $35, $10, and $5 respectively when they debut on 27 March 2014, and are being made at the West Point, Denver, Philadelphia, and San Francisco mints.
The curve in the coin is intended to evoke a baseball glove on the concave side and a ball on the convex side, in celebration of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s 75th birthday. It's a smart design, but perhaps it would have been better suited to another decade. Commemorative bitcoins, anyone?
Rico says it won't feel right in your pocket, won't stack in cash registers, and won't go through a vending machine slot, but they're too expensive to be actually used, except for the cheap clad one...

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