I am in Los Angeles for pleasure.
Despite promises to myself, I find a way to work during my vacation. The first culprit was the purchase of a pack of gum, and then correct change from my purchase. Finally, the real guilty party emerged: the U.S. Mint.
In my hand was a wondrous thing.
Suddenly I am in Los Angeles on business; my business is spreading the gospel of the new design of the nickel.
What an odd thing to advocate, but a surprisingly good design has compelled me to do so. Good design makes you feel great. It’s one of those rare elements in which price is not reflective of value. Whether it’s a $3 Pez Dispenser, a $340 iPod, or a $34,000 BMW, good design reflects well upon you. So I am showing off my nickel to people I see in Los Angeles. New currency is a nice ice breaker. Most people have not noticed it, but everyone is pleased with the design.
The new nickel represents how it is the everyday objects for everyday people that especially need good design. These objects have fallen upon aesthetic hard times in the past sixty years. There was once a time when good design was seen as good for the community, not just good for business. Even the simplest of grid-work on bridges, tunnels and park benches once swelled with beauty. With time that sentiment faded. Good design began to go to the highest bidder, usually coming with a hefty price tag.
The new nickel disproves that. Good design does not have to sprout from private enterprise. I feel the marvelous new nickel reflects that good design and public good are one and the same again.
That’s a big thing for five cents.
The coin itself is an American Beauty. It is all about simplicity, keeping the look pure and easy, like the boundless lines of our capital dome itself. There is a new minimalism here.
The new 5-cent coins will be issued for three years starting this year to recognize the 200th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition. The nickel’s current design was introduced 65 years ago, in 1938.
Images of the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark’s legendary trip across the West will be shown on the “tails” side of the new coins. The “heads” side will continue to carry President Jefferson’s face to recognize his role in the purchase from the French and the commissioning of Lewis and Clark’s journey.
The first of the “tails” side designs bears the retro styling of the Buffalo Nickel. Note that this is not “retro for the sake of retro,” this is a clever nod to the current regeneration of the endangered beasts on our plains. Turning the coin over, the portrait of Jefferson is blended gently into the curved edge. This is remarkable that we have the government taking liberties (pun intended) with graphic position. With its cropping of Jefferson, it’s what you don’t see that makes his portrait remarkable for currency. It’s like seeing a bra, a bit of a breast, and starting to dream. Jefferson’s head is slightly angled as well, making him appear as if he will emerge from the face of the coin. Near his lips, Jefferson whispers the one word which unites us all: liberty. Effortlessly elegant.
What is most notable is how the new design restores the spirit of Jefferson’s legacy. The Louisiana Purchase opened up the West to American settlers. This wild, roaming spirit, this “Fresh, green breast” of land would energize generations of Americans. The coin speaks of this legacy through the Buffalo, the enduring symbol of the old west. The buffalo successfully replaces the somber and grim graphic of Jefferson’s sterile memorial at Monticello. Though it is an estate noted for its beauty, it fails to evoke the boundless energy of Jefferson’s legacy. Unlike America, Jefferson’s Monticello is stationary. It is stuck in the past, planted in one of the thirteen original colonies. But the buffalo changes that. The buffalo is constantly roaming. It was the exotic American creature. To see it, one had to bravely board wagons or trains and journey west. The coin then, has a speed all its own. In a country that is perpetually “going west”, whether it is California or the World Wi! de Web, Jefferson and the Buffalo are perfect symbols of the American people.
The true beauty of this design is that five cents is now worth considerably more.
Jimm Lasser, Esq. (1974- )
On the stormy morning of Sunday, December 9, 1974, Nancy Lasser, wife of Alan, gave birth to a boy. He was born on a bed of poles covered with corn husks. The baby was named Jimm, after Comedian Red Foxx. The birth took place in the Lasser’s rough-hewn cabin in Winnetka near Chicago, Illinois. Alan Lasser was a dermatologist and a farmer. Nancy Lasser had little or no accounting schooling and could not write french poetry. Jimm spent a short amount of time in a log schoolhouse, before graduating from the University of Michigan, Vanderbilt University School of Law, and the Portfolio Center. Jimm attended school dressed in a raccoon cap, buckskin clothes, and pants so short that several inches of his calves were exposed. Jimm earned his first dollar ferrying passengers to a steamer on the Ohio River, and designing T-shirts for the 84-year old James Toast at sharpastoast.com. He was a member of the charter class of John Bielenberg’s Project M, spoke out against the Dred Scott Decision, and has won many decorations for valor in battle.
Contrast this very elegant initiative to what has happened to our paper money and weep. Currency serves as a cultural ambassador for any nation, an opportunity to convey national culture and history to untold billions. Look at the inelegant new $10 bill
and ponder what statement this makes about the United States of America.
On Oct.04.2005 at 03:19 PM