How many living public figures have been portrayed on US coins?

[Art_from_Ark]

I'm not talking about people who were once alive, but died before they were put on a coin. I mean people who were actually able to see their likeness on a real United States, made-by-the-Mint coin.

To whittle down the list, I'm also not talking about anonymous people who served as models for the Goddess of Liberty, some historical figure, etc. (such as the Philadelphia schoolteacher whose face graces the Morgan dollar, Anthony de Francisci's wife who served as the model for the Peace dollar, the Native American lady who modeled for the Sacagawea dollar, or the lovely bare-breasted lady who posed for Herman MacNeil's Standing Liberty quarter). I mean public (or semi-public) figures who had their mugs stamped on legal tender US coins, and were able to tell about it.

So how many have there been?

For extra credit, who were they?

[Richard Steele]

1. None?

[Art_from_Ark]

3. Good guess, but no cigar

:hi:

[TOhioLiberal]

2. Hmmm...

...don't you have to be dead to get on a coin? Or am I thinking of stamps?

[Art_from_Ark]

4. You definitely have to be dead to get your face on a stamp

if you're a public figure.

But that hasn't always been the case with coins.

[TOhioLiberal]

6. Okay...

...I'm therefore guessing FDR.

[Richard Steele]

8. No, they introduced that in '46, after he died in '45. nm

[Art_from_Ark]

9. Not FDR

But there was a President who actually did get to see his face on a coin while he was alive.

[MonkeyFunk]

5. well

Ohio's quarter depicts an astronaut, who could be Neil Armstrong

[Art_from_Ark]

7. It could be Armstrong, or it could be John Glenn

(who was later a distinguished Senator from Ohio). Either way, though, the astronaut is not recognizable as an actual public figure.

[realisticphish]

10. John Glenn still rules

He works at my school (Ohio State) and he's a real nice guy

[Art_from_Ark]

14. You're lucky to have such a great man at your school

Have you ever met him?

He certainly rocked as a Senator. I was really sad when he retired from the Senate.

[realisticphish]

19. I've met him a couple times

really formal, you know, handshake line kinda deal, but he's a great speaker; he travels a lot, but does periodic talks at OSU

[mrbill]

11. Senator Carter Glass.............

on the 1936 Lynchburg, Virginia Sesquicentennial Commerative Half.

[Art_from_Ark]

15. One down, a few to go

:hi:

[mrbill]

18. Gerald Ford on the Nebraska state quarter?

n/t

[Art_from_Ark]

21. Unless Mr. Ford was by the covered wagon,

then I would say no.

[mrbill]

22. Gerald is asleep in the back of the wagon......

let's try Thomas E Kilby on the 1921 Alabama Centennial Half Dollar and
Cavin Cooledge on the 1926 Sesquincentennial Of American Independance Half Dollar.

[Art_from_Ark]

23. Thomas Kilby-- check

Calvin Coolidge-- check
Carter Glass-- check
Eunice Kennedy Shriver-- check

Four down, one to go!

Hint for Number 5-- He was a one-time vice presidential candidate, and a big proponent of New Deal programs. And he would have been my Senator, if I had lived back in his day.

[mrbill]

24. Arkansas Centennial 1935. 35-D, 35-S - 1939.......

Joseph T. Robinson

Red Book isn't real clear on this.

[Art_from_Ark]

25. Check out the Robinson-Arkansas commemorative

minted in 1936.

Joseph T. Robinson died in office the next year, 1937.

[Yukari Yakumo]

12. None.

Nobody was alive when they had their mug stamped on a coin.

[MonkeyFunk]

13. There have been

commemorative coins with living people on them:




but I don't know of any regular coins in circulation.

[Art_from_Ark]

16. Eunice Kennedy Shriver

That makes two so far. We're almost halfway there.

[MonkeyFunk]

17. are they all

commemorative?

[Art_from_Ark]

20. Yes, they are all commemoratives

And all but one of them (Kennedy Shriver) have been half dollars.