The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1890-07-26
equal prOpOrtl

turc The idea in this is that the coins will
thus be made of educational value in teach
ing the masses something about the geoS-
raphy of their country. need scarcely add
that do not favor making geographical
text book of the silver dollar. Another
suggestion, and more artistic one, Is that
we use portraits of all the prominent men
of our history, stamping few millions IN
honor of one man and a few millions III
honor of another till all have been thus
used.
"Thcre are living men who think them
selves great enough to adorn the silver dol
lar This sugg astion was made to me by Il
certain member of congressional we put
upon the new silver dollar portraits OF ter
or doz, l of the most conspicuous cham
pions of RECOMMENDATION of silver, lie
thought this would be IA graceful and ar.
tistic recognition Of their services, and, OF
course, he expected to be one of the honor
able dozen. don't think this plan will be
adopted. The seals of the various states
outline pictures of the Capitol, the Wash
ington monument ana other publlc Dullu
ings have been suggested.
THE most novel suggestion which has
vet reached this Office concerning design
IOT lllt SllNtT - tii pNtSi'NNai vi WV
prevailing passion for pictures of pretty
women The man who offered this plar
was photographer in New York, who
said he had been at work for some years
making a collection of photographs of the
beautiful women of America. He wanted
us to take his photographs, several thou.
sand in number, have composite picture
made of them all and use the result rs tho
sum and essence of American beauty anc
the ideal head of Liberty. | admire pretty
women as much as any one, but don't
think this plan will do. In choosing de
sign for u silver dollar we can hardly afford
to 70 into competition with the makers OF
cigarette pictures. My admiration for the
beauty of American woman Is SO great,
and my desire to improve our coins sc
keen, that | want first OF all To get rid OF
the Philadelphia school marin on the q oil
lar and then of the young woman frt III
Arkansas sitting on IA bale of cotton ON the
half dollar and quarter. Another design
that could be dispensed with to advantage
is the Indian on the penny The law says
the design on the face Of the penny shall
typfy liberty, but | cannot see the relation
between liberty and the head of an Indian,
for the Indian has very few liberties now
adays, and the more he has the less the
people like il"
(Which nation, in your opinion, has the
prettiest coins|
81 like the German coins better than any
other, though the French aud English are
both artistic There is one good thing
about the German coins-they have raised
letters running about on the periphery.
This interferes with the practice, which Is
more common in this country than most
people suppose. of drilling into coin and
taking out the gold. This can he done
without much danger OF detection with
our gold coins, as the base metal used for
filling the cavity will produce so nearly the
same weight that without weighing IL Is
impossible to detect the fraud. Very often
the treasury department finds gold coins
which have been relieved Of part of their
precious Substance. Such coins can not be
banked at any value. and the only thing to