I must apologize to all of you. I had written my Memorial Day Blog and again when I went to save it it was lost. My hands will not allow me to write it again. But I� will say this. You can say this in a few words Don't forget our Heroes. This is another day we remember them who gave there lives.� .....I ask that before you have your barbeques to have a moment of silence for these brave men. They didn't know us and we didn't know them.But they fought and died for us. So the least we can do is take that moment and remember them.

Ever think Lady Lib's eyes on the Saint Gaudens Double Eagle were lacking, or strangely designed?� Me too, but theres more!� Augustus Saint Gaudens was a genius.I'm a NYC native so I've been amazed with Augustus Saint Gaudens' work since I was a kid growing up exploring the nooks and crannies of the city.� There's an exibit of his work at the MET and I highly recommend it.� He's also got some pretty iconic stuff in Central Park.� If you take long looks at his work, the people in the sculptures appear to be perfectly captured and frozen in whatever they are doing or feeling.� Their faces, in particular, are so well sculpted I would find it hard to point out comparable works unless you were look to the Ninja Turtles' namesakes of Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo, or Michelango. �When I got into coins later in life, seeing the name Saint Gaudens was a great intersection of interests, so I took a really good look at the $20 Double Eagle.� I was let down in a way, because the coin in totality is amazing, but Lady Lib's face was lacking to me.� Even in the finest known example of 68+ on PCGS, her eyes are scalloped out and detail-less.� I was(am) dumb and it goes deeper though, I think. � ��When this coin was designed, the light bulb was pretty fresh and most homes probably weren't as well lit as they are today.� IE if you were to look at a coin back then, you most probably had a single source of light like a candle or lone lightbulb, or probably a ray of sunlight.� Ring LEDs and ceilings full of bulbs like we have today were,�for all intents and purposes, impossible at that point.� It is with these tools that we've been looking at the Gaudens Double Eagle though, and I personally have been missing something critical in the coin's design.� It's been in her eyes, and it's only visible under lighting conditions similar to those available in the late 19th/early 20th century.You see, the concave nature of the scalloped eyes actually coalesces the light and throws it right back at your eyes, but you need a single, directional source of light feeding it.� What's the effect?� With a ray of photons, Lady Lib's face is completed; her eyes are created on the spot and are represented by pure all seeing and illuminating light in some sort of symbolic optical illusion.� Take a close look at my pictures after the first one.� If you own one of these coins, please try using your phone LED or loupe light and shine from the bottom going up.� This would be similar to holding the coin obverse up and tilting it slightly to allow your source of light to hit it.� Lady Lib will shine her gaze upon you too!� It's very tough to capture the effect in a picture.� You need to see for yourself. �

Earlier this week, I found a war nickel from 1944 in a roll!

For further details about this item and others please visit my collections section.

Over the summer I won't be able to post, but I will still keep collecting. I hope you continue collecting as well. See you then!