美国国家公共电台 NPR--The U.S. mint is rethinking nearly two centuries of coin design

The U.S. mint is rethinking nearly two centuries of coin design

Transcript¹

The U.S. mint is beginning to roll out a new set of quarters honoring American women. The mint is also trying to allow the artists a little more creativity with the design.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

This year, the U.S. Mint releases new quarters. They honor people like Maya Angelou, Wilma Mankiller and Eleanor Roosevelt, and the redesign gave the mint a chance to rethink some odd little details of U.S. coins. Here's Dave Blanchard of NPR's Planet Money podcast.

DAVE BLANCHARD, BYLINE²: Our journey into the history of U.S. coin design started with this somewhat innocuous listener question.

RANDY SIMPSON: Hi, Planet Money. This is Randy Simpson from Livermore, Calif. Have you ever noticed there are not numbers on U.S. coins? Instead, we spell out one cent, five cents and quarter dollar. So, Planet Money, maybe you can solve this important mystery.

BLANCHARD: We love a good mystery, so we decided³ to pull at this thread by talking to Dennis Tucker. He studies coins and money - a.k.a., he's a numismatist⁴.

You have a culprit.

DENNIS TUCKER: (Laughter) Well, I don't know if I would call him a culprit, but he's certainly a character of note. And his name is Christian⁵ Gobrecht.

BLANCHARD: Christian Gobrecht was an artist born in the 1780s in Pennsylvania, and growing up, he was always drawing in journals and sketchbooks.

TUCKER: He was, really, pretty talented. And if you happened to be an artist in Philadelphia, then you would catch the eye of mint officials, as he did.

BLANCHARD: So, Christian Gobrecht goes to work for the mint, and he wants to become the chief engraver⁶. But when that position opens up, he's passed over. Instead, he gets this consolation⁷ prize. He's asked to be the second engraver.

TUCKER: It's during this period that Gobrecht starts to come up with all of these coin designs that are a radical⁸ departure from what others before him had done.

BLANCHARD: Like, before Gobrecht, American coins had these formal, traditional designs - usually a woman in profile. She was the personification of liberty. Gobrecht proposed something new.

TUCKER: His design was fresh. It was a full figure of liberty. You know, she's seated, and she's very much in control of her destiny and her surroundings.

BLANCHARD: She has this casual posture⁹, flowing robes. She feels more human. And the mint adopts it for, like, all of their silver coins. It becomes known as the liberty seated design. And more to the point of our listener Randy's question, there was another radical departure in Gobrecht's design - how the numbers were written.

TUCKER: Before Gobrecht, it was a combination of numerals and abbreviated¹⁰ cent signs, for example. So a half dime¹¹, which was a denomination¹² back in the day, would have been five C period. Gobrecht changed that to half dime, spelled out.

BLANCHARD: Now, we don't know why Gobrecht made this change. But Dennis has a theory. Gobrecht didn't get the job he wanted. Remember? He was only the second engraver.

TUCKER: Maybe some of his artistic¹³ innovation was a way to strike back at that and just kind of say, I'm not your grandfather's coin designer. You know, I'm a modern artist, and here's how I'm going to interpret modern coinage.

BLANCHARD: The thing is, once a style is established, it sticks. The numeral design has now lasted for some 200 years. Pull some change out of your pocket, those little written out numbers on your coins - that's Gobrecht. But there are these American women quarters being released over the next few years, and the mint is trying to allow for a little more artistic creativity, including allowing the artists to go with a numeral design if they want to. And if that happens, it'll upend nearly two centuries of tradition that started with Christian Gobrecht, which feels, frankly¹⁴, a little Gobrechtian (ph).

Dave Blanchard, NPR News.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 numismatist   

n.钱币收藏家

参考例句：

• His grandfather is a numismatist.他爷爷是个钱币收藏家。
• Numismatist said that you have completed the collection of coins.货币学家说你完成了货币的搜集。

5 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

6 engraver   

n.雕刻师，雕工

参考例句：

• He was a sketcher and a copper-plate engraver. 他也是杰出的素描家和铜版画家。 来自辞典例句
• He was once an engraver in a printing factory. 他以前是印刷厂的一名刻工。 来自互联网

7 consolation   

n.安慰，慰问

参考例句：

• The children were a great consolation to me at that time.那时孩子们成了我的莫大安慰。
• This news was of little consolation to us.这个消息对我们来说没有什么安慰。

8 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

9 posture   

n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势

参考例句：

• The government adopted an uncompromising posture on the issue of independence.政府在独立这一问题上采取了毫不妥协的态度。
• He tore off his coat and assumed a fighting posture.他脱掉上衣，摆出一副打架的架势。

10 abbreviated   

adj. 简短的，省略的 动词abbreviate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He abbreviated so much that it was hard to understand his article. 他的文章缩写词使用太多，令人费解。
• The United States of America is commonly abbreviated to U.S.A.. 美利坚合众国常被缩略为U.S.A.。

11 dime   

n.（指美国、加拿大的钱币）一角

参考例句：

• A dime is a tenth of a dollar.一角银币是十分之一美元。
• The liberty torch is on the back of the dime.自由火炬在一角硬币的反面。

12 denomination   

n.命名，取名，(度量衡、货币等的)单位

参考例句：

• The firm is still operating under another denomination.这家公司改用了名称仍在继续营业。
• Litre is a metric denomination.升是公制单位。

13 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

14 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。