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GAH!

aragorn

Lookee what I found on eBay. It’s a…well, look at it. It’s kind of a…hm. It’s a…SWEET FANCY MOSES, WHAT IS THAT THING?

It’s a coin, issued by a real government. Or, at any rate, the government of New Zealand. It has Liz on the other side and everything. It’s a proof coin, so it was only ever intended for collectors. But I have to ask myself…collectors of what?

I’ve been watching the quality of coin designs slide for years but — in all seriousness — there is no excuse for modeling this shitty ever to escape into the wild. Even for the notoriously unfussy collectors’ market. Certainly not with the imprimatur of a real government mint.

Dude’s face fails even the basic properties of bilateral symmetry common to all terrestrial mammals. I wouldn’t accept this level of drawing from a middle school student, not without some pretty stern critique.

Oh, it’s a 2003 proof coin celebrating the coronation of Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings flicks. See the whole thing.

Comments


Comment from Skandia Recluse
Time: September 30, 2015, 9:55 pm

I have a couple of proof silver dollars, and a few uncirculated. I like the big cart wheels because a stack of them are heavy and make me feel rich.

But, proof coins sell for ten times the value of the metal. (The last time I bought any.) Silver coins sell for more than the value of the metal if they are in uncirculated condition. The old coins that were in circulation were melted down when the metal became worth more than the face value of the coin.

I had three or four old coins in good condition, and my sister discovered them one day when she needed gas money.

Story of my live. I hoard junk, buy over priced stuff new that goes obsolete within a few years, and generally frittered my money away buying into the scam du jour.

‘Rube’ applies, that would be me.


Comment from Nina
Time: September 30, 2015, 10:41 pm

I’ve seen better artwork among the doodles in the margins of my students’ homework.


Comment from QuasiModo
Time: September 30, 2015, 10:49 pm

I *thought* it looked familiar :+)


Comment from Sigivald
Time: September 30, 2015, 10:56 pm

Some fool is going to pay 35 *pounds* for that?

It’s $12 worth of silver in a really ugly form.

(When I buy silver, which is when the price drops below where it is now, I buy bullion rounds and the like, not “coins”; the overage on them makes them pointless except for numismatists.

The exception being old US 90% silver coinage; most of that is so worn it’s sold by weight.)


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 30, 2015, 11:20 pm

Not necessarily, Sigi. £35 is what he’s asking for it — whether he’ll get it or not is another story. I thought that guy’s stock was all grossly overpriced.


Comment from mojo
Time: October 1, 2015, 3:56 am

Yeah the Kiwis go nuts with the coins. That one’s celebrating the biggest box=office film ever to hit the shores of NZ. Big blast of cash.

Me, I preferred it when they had Maori war clubs and stuff.


Comment from mojo
Time: October 1, 2015, 3:59 am

BTW, I collect, and have a Cook Islands set with (what I presume is) Wangi-Wangi, the Polynesian god of horny sailors and bull elephants.

I can post you a pic, if you dare.


Comment from Mitchell
Time: October 1, 2015, 4:22 am

This has to be the result of a public school art contest for the reverse coin design. Not every middle school art student was at your stage at that age Stoaty.


Comment from Mitchell
Time: October 1, 2015, 4:47 am

OK, I have to walk my comment back. Still, it doesn’t look quite as bad under less harsh lighting Still cringing.


Comment from Carl
Time: October 1, 2015, 10:38 am

I think you’re being a bit harsh. The image was never intended to be viewed at a microscopic level.

The designer was Matt Bonaccorsi who was Chief Engraver at the Royal Mint.

You can see some of his other designs here

(Hope that link works).


Comment from As If I Cared (now with caps!)
Time: October 1, 2015, 1:00 pm

“Aragorn’s Coronation (as Rendered by the Orc Artist Blarrrrrrgh)”


Comment from LesterIII
Time: October 1, 2015, 1:42 pm

It does not take microscopic level scrutiny to see the WTF aspect of this piece; you can see the suck from across the room. Upon viewing his other work, Mr. Bonaccorsi seems to have phoned this one in. If you are a professional, your output should be professional or you will be harshly critiqued.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: October 1, 2015, 9:09 pm

I dunno, Carl. His other work looks okay, but there’s really no excuse for work this crude. Even backing way, way off…look how clumsy the faces in the back are, how awful the eyes are. It’s almost like he balked at doing this one and they pinched something out of his rough sketchbook.


Comment from Malcolm Kirkpatrick
Time: October 2, 2015, 12:05 am

Last I looked, Singapore had beautiful coins.


Comment from mojo
Time: October 2, 2015, 3:36 am

It’s slightly better in silver


Comment from pc
Time: October 2, 2015, 12:45 pm

The Sacagawea dollar was just as bad. The portrait is horrible, and the baby’s head is too small and seems to sprout directly from her neck. What ever happened to drawing from live models, or at least photographs?


Comment from nightfly
Time: October 2, 2015, 2:33 pm

Huh, if I had to guess, I would have said Anthony Hopkins as Odin in the Thor movies… a really drunk Anthony Hopkins, who couldn’t quite focus on the camera, and who was about to beat the photographer senseless with his own tripod… hence the poor image quality.


Comment from Gunslinger
Time: October 2, 2015, 4:12 pm

I think you are all being trolled. Lord of the Rings…HA!

This is a coin from the WWE collection of “Dead Champions”.

It is the third in the series featuring Randy “The Macho Man” Savage. And quite a fine likeness it is, in my opinion.

The Andre the Giant coin, however, is quite hideous.

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