ANS Participates in U.S. Senate Committee Symposium on Coin Design

New York, NY, September 5, 2000 - At the invitation of the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Dr. Ute Wartenberg, Executive Director of The American Numismatic Society, will be participating in a symposium entitled, "Coin Designs Worthy Of A Great Nation" which will be held in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, September 13, 2000 at 10:00a.m. in room SD-538 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The symposium will review the designs of circulating U.S. coins and will discuss ways of improving these designs. It will be free and open to the public. There will also be a corresponding exhibit of examples of outstanding coin design available for viewing. The American Numismatic Society will be contributing 21 ancient and foreign coins from its collection for the exhibit, which will be on display during the day of the event.

The symposium, organized by Senator (R-Texas) Phil Gramm, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, is supposed to stimulate a national discussion of how the US coin designs "may be improved to signify the distinction and greatness of our Republic." Other participants in the discussion are Jay W. Johnson, United States Mint Director, James T. Ferrell, United States Mint Engraver, Dr. Richard Doty, Curator of the Smithsonian Institution, and ANA President Robert H. Campbell.

In her statement for the symposium, Dr. Wartenberg discusses the importance of looking at successful coinages from foreign countries and earlier periods. A selection of Greek, Roman, and later foreign coinages will be discussed and assessed for their artistic merits. She also analyzes the process through which past coinages were selected. Dr. Wartenberg says, "In monarchies, the need to redesign coinage is usually brought about by the death of a ruler, whose portrait is traditionally on the obverse of a coin. This need to change is lacking in democracies, which tend to produce the same coins without major alterations. This often leads to complacency about coin design. Everyone has to accept that change is a healthy process. It forces us to re-examine designs and the underlying values of our society." She further adds, "Young artists should be engaged in the process and a paid competition to commission new designs would help to make coin design more attractive. The selection committees should represent the country's population and should be wary of compromising too much when it comes to selecting designs. One has to be bold and controversial. Great art always involves a large element of risk."

Images of the coins discussed by Dr. Wartenberg can be found on the ANS Website under www.amnumsoc.org/senate.

The American Numismatic Society, founded in 1858, is a non-profit international center for the preservation and study of coins, medals and paper money, representing more than 2,500 years of culture. The ANS collection contains almost one million objects and spans all periods and geographic areas, including Greek and Roman, medieval and modern European, American, Islamic, Asian and African coins, as well as other materials. In addition, the ANS has the world's finest numismatic library, which also contains non-numismatic monographs and references on history, art, economics, language and culture. Both the collection and the library are available to the public.