Spectator's Journal
"Spectator's Journal" The Mother of Appall It is the Rosemary's Baby of coins. Women shriek, babies cry, even the strong-stomached are prone to attacks of nausea at the sight of...
...coins cannot be made oftener than once every 25 years...
...Sometimes they even sent their fabled agricultural experts to urge forth the corn...
...And who shot Angelo Bruno...
...Even the Indian penny and the Buffalo nickel are distinctly American in a handsomely rugged sort of way...
...Consider their foreign aid programs in Eastern Europe...
...A nation that, like ours, came to life via revolution, but one that has actually.been genuinely instrumental in bringing progress and peace to the world...
...The reverse of the coin is the same as the old, slightly bizarre r e v e r s e of the Eisenhower dollar: an eagle landing on the moon...
...Now, Gasparro is no novice: His previous credits include the r e v e r s e of the Lincoln penny and the Kennedy half, as well as the Eisenhower dollar...
...Another commentator, incidentally a coin collector, demurred slightly by saying that for real ugliness one should look to the Latin American coinage of the eighteenth century, which depicted various Spanish monarchs with hooked noses, double chins, silly grins, bulging f o r e h e a d s , bulbous noses, sniffish glares, and prickly moods...
...By God, the thing is at least as popular as the 1976 $2 bill...
...coins: the classic 1892 Barber series of dimes, quarters, and halves...
...Very well and good--our coinage compares favorably with that of the latter-day banana republics...
...According to historical sources, Susan B. Anthony was "a grim Old Gal with manly a i r , " " a f r i g h t . " One author declared: " I have seen scarecrows that did credit to f a r m e r s ' boys' ingenuity, but never one better calculated to scare all birds, b e a s t s , and human beings...
...coin--or Bella Abzug's...
...Even so, there will be no dirges played, no obituaries written, no death c e r t i f i c a t e s signed...
...The only hope may be vespers and the prayer chamber to petition for a quick end...
...Our hope is that the design can be refined to include the more distinct facial characteristics of Miss Anthony...
...The Susan B. Anthony dollar is indeed the devil's work, the source of everything discouraging in the country...
...The coin is an atrocity," said Sadik...
...The Soviets have not been timid in defending liberty and progressive ways...
...Gasparro did his best, but his first engraving was "too pretty" to suit the coven of flaming harpy feminists and loon congressmen in charge of the coin's final design...
...Joe Mysak EDITORIAL (continued from page 5) said that "angelo [that is to say, Mr...
...By now we are all aware of CIA designs to thwart democracy in Cuba...
...Legality about changing the design went out the window...
...President Coin Game," which were given away in the vintage years of happy motoring...
...But Senator Proxmire construed the idea of Liberty on a coin as an insult to all American women and bid for a historical woman to be honored...
...Now it seems as if our coins are going to hell...
...We eavesdropped...
...Our government's cruel history of harassing Angelo Bruno can be replicated many times not only domestically but also in the realm of international relations, where it not only puts the lie to our noble ideals but also c r e a t e s danger and instability...
...S P E C T A T O R ' S J O U R N A L The Mother of Appall It is the Rosemary's Baby of coins...
...Here is a government fc)unded on the noblest ideals...
...But it was not always meant to be so...
...But consider the astounding way we have treated the Soviet Union...
...the 1916 Walking Liberty half...
...I t is rare that a policy decision involving money has inspired such contempt," notes a canny editorial writer of the Boston Globe in a rare moment of whimsy...
...The Commission of Fine Arts got into the act, adding: "We would like the likeness to be more exact...
...It looks like something you get in a Cracker Jack box...
...Maybe we should get rid of t h e m . " We, no doubt, would be perfectly willing to forget about this horrid monstrosity, this b a s t a r d spawn of flaming harpies and imbecilic pols, thisevil, sulfurous bit of specie...
...All are s o u g h t - a f t e r collector's items...
...But compare the Suzie with some other representative U.S...
...After that, God knows...
...Gasparro had at his original design with a meat-axe, and the results were hailed as art...
...Where was their evidence...
...If the eyes are the windows to the soul, then a nation's coinage is the window to its heart, and that is what makes the Suzie so disturbing...
...The Susan B. Anthony dollar is an embarrassment and absurdity...
...Why was he so thoughtlessly calumniated as a mobster by the press...
...Though the Mint produced 750 million of the coins in 1979, more than in 28 },ears of the Morgan series, they circulate no more than do Brasher doubloons...
...Nobody, not even the government, knows how long this abomination will be visited upon the Republic...
...Women shriek, babies cry, even the strong-stomached are prone to attacks of nausea at the sight of it...
...According to a law passed on September 26, 1890, changes in designs of U.S...
...Yet what was our response...
...congressman, constantly under surveillance...
...the Suzie became a cause cdl~bre...
...Why the hell was a man like this, a man with a cleaner police record than many a U.S...
...Our art and architecture are little better...
...Some people stare at it in wide-eyed terror and disbelief...
...Gaudens' 1907 eagle and double eagle...
...Bruno] was a dynamite man...
...You know something happened there...
...Next, of course, will be the paper currency, some of the last artful engraving being done on the planet...
...For sheer beauty, one might as well imagine Betty F r i e d a n ' s cheery mug on a U.S...
...This is possibly the most troubling question of the whole episode...
...I t ' s one of the most hideous coins I've ever seen...
...There is damned little left...
...He came to my graduation party and always said hello to me, like I was somebody...
...And why should t h e r e be...
...I think she lost her teeth or had a lot of trouble with them as she got older...
...the Morgan and Peace dollars...
...The People are resisting Suzie, but who can tell for how long they will keep it up...
...It is a law which has served us in good stead, and, had it been given a chance, might have saved us from the Suzie Travesty...
...Legally, the Suzie was from the womb untimely ripped...
...Our postage stamps have long been jokes...
...none are even remotely laughable...
...Well, there you are...
...Plans vary between pushing the coin, suspending it indefinitely, and turning out just enough each calendar year to continue the series...
...Most turn away in disgust...
...We (continued on page 47) 44 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY I980...
...Chief Engraver Frank Gasparro had an idea for a silver dollar, something uplifting and traditional, with the head of Liberty and an eagle...
...But is this enough...
...Suzie beat out such beauties as Harriet Tubman and Eleanor Roosevelt for the honors...
...Frank Greve, of the Pbiladelplsia Inquirer's Washington bureau, found out as much when he interviewed Marvin Sadik, director of the Smiths o n i a n ' s National P o r t r a i t Gallery and an adequate a r b i t e r of the national aesthetic...
...These are impressive, artistic, and glorious coins...
...Long before the cries from the Third World roused the languorous consciences of the West, the Soviets were generously endowing, and sometimes actually building, hospitals, roads, irrigation projects, sports stadiums, and miliaary bases...
...A lesser scholar noted the c o i n ' s alarming resemblance to the aluminum tokens of Shell's "Mr...
...Gasparro scrutinized the documentary evidence--two photographs-more closely: "She had awful bushy eyebrows...
...A few laugh...
...It is just another example of the uglification of America...
...or Augustus St...
Vol. 13 • July 1980 • No. 7
