The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 28, July 13, 2003, Article 7

MIXED CASE LETTERING ON COINS

  Michael Schmidt writes: "The Franklin half dollar has the same
  small o in oF.  Again just artistic license as far as I know."
  [This coin was designed by John Sinnock. -Editor]

  Arthur Shippee writes: "The lowercase "o" on the cent
  probably reflects the standard practice of how one capitalizes
  phrases (like book or hymn titles), where "of" is one of the
  words not given an initial cap.  I gather US coins tend to all
  caps, but one sees this initial cap. practice on the Ohio Quarter,
  where the phrase, "Birthplace of Aviation Pioneers" is in upper
  case and small caps, instead of upper case and lower case,
  and where the "of" is in small caps.

  At a guess, it seems that the Lincoln Memorial cent is an
  artistic extension of this principle."

  [Now why didn't I think of that?    Thanks for the great
  submission.  Sounds like a fine explanation.  Too bad the
  designer Frank Gasparro died recently - we could have just
  asked him!   Perhaps the answer will turn up in his
  correspondence someday.  -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor 
at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum