Collection Highlights -
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Obverse
The obverse is a very interesting design and at first I actually didn't know what it was. According to Numista it is the Earth rising over the horizon of the Moon. Now that I've read the description it actually makes a lot more sense for the landscape in the front and the planet in the back.
I'm not sure why it would be focused on a viewpoint from the Moon. This was a international Silver trade unit but I don't know how space travel gets tied in. I would have expected a globe definitely, but the whole lunar side has me very confused
Reverse
The reverse of this coin might be one of my favorite. Considering how much detail it has, I still feel like the design is very clean and appealing. It not only says the international silver trade unit, but it also depicts
- Oil
- Transportation
- Wheat
- Gold
- Atomic
- Behive
- Trust
- Thrift
- Industry
- Deseret
That is a ton of imagery and representation on the back of a 1 oz coin. I especially like the beehive and I think there's a lot there that could give some more details behind with coin came from.
I think the images that did put on the back do sort of have a connection with things that might have true value. Oil and gas, gold, wheat and atomic energy all seem to be things that we will need going forward to exist for the foreseeable future and commodities that are likely to survive in the long run versus more consumer-based service-based things.
Deseret - From the book of Mormon meaning Honeybee - or the failed proposed state?
So the thing that stuck out to me the most was the name Desert... According to some web searches it comes from The book of Mormon meaning honey bee, and it appears to be written on the base of a beehive. But it also was the name of a proposed state in 1849 that would have encompassed nearly all of present-day Utah, Nevada was large portions of California and Arizona in some parts of Colorado New Mexico Wyoming and oregon. That would have been one of the biggest states if it had passed but the resolution failed.
I'm not exactly sure if this has links to utah, or Mormons, or anything else but I really like this coin. Unfortunately I don't see many of them for sale very often and I'll have to see if I get lucky enough to find another one.
Either way I think it's a great example of some of the designs and thought that people were putting in to the silver coins being minted in the 70s and '80s. I don't think I see as much of that now, or at least it seems to be more cartoonish.