Seize the Day

As a lot of you know, this past Sunday marked the 46th anniversary of the death of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Being the inspirational leader that he was, JFK has been memorialized in numerous ways, as far as presidential collectibles and presidential currency is concerned.

Liberian 2009 JFK $5 coin

The Franklin Mint has already thrown its hat into the ring of Chief Executive memorabilia. The  private mint company (founded, coincidentally, in the year following Kennedy’s death, 1964) has a Presidential Dollar Completion Program, wherein you can acquire a full set of 24-karat-gold-layered coins, each one featuring a past US leader. One of the highlights of this limited edition collectible program is a coin depicting Kennedy (along with, mind you, an exact-type coin featuring Ronald Reagan), and plated with platinum . But you have to pay for the entire collection up-front to garner this prize…

(By the way, I’m not sure if these coins are legal tender, and if you could actually spend any of them in the purchase of goods or purchases. But having put forth all that money to get these coins, why would you want to do that, anyway? )

All of the collectible coins in the Franklin Mint series depict official presidential portraits on their respective obverse sides.  As I mentioned in my previous entry, American Mint has limited edition Barack Obama collectible coins which each display a likeness taken from his official photo portrait.  (Fun fact: a president’s portrait painting is usually not taken until he leaves office. ) And to let you in on a little secret, the photo on our Bill Clinton “Dollar Bill” Bumper Sticker was culled from Bubba’s executive portrait, also.

So why use an official portrait on a presidential collectible or presidential memorabilia item? In response to that question, I’ll ask another question: “Why not?”

For starters, all of the aesthetics and skills that culminate in a better-than-decent artistic endeavor are harnessed to put into this one picture (And it had better be because you don’t want to be that commissioned entity known throughout posterity as the one that screwed up a presidential portrait.):

• a superb artist (hopefully)
• the president’s “good” side
• a subject at ease and in his element (usually somewhere in the White House, if not exactly in the Oval Office)
• good illumination

Literally-speaking, a president might never be seen in a better light than in this picture. There are probably other considerations that go into creating that perfect painting, but my point is already made…

Another reason a presidential portrait might be a good starting point for creating a collectible, is that in many cases (for example, George Washington’s oil on canvas in 1796), a painting has been around for decades and/or centuries. It is a renowned work of art unto itself, it is familiar to lots of people, it has resonated with audiences for a long time, and, most of all, it is widely appreciated and admired. You’d think it would a good idea to capitalize on that popularity, and put some vestige of that art work on a marketable product.

And the last point I’ll bring up about using a portion or the whole of an official executive portrait in a presidential memorabilia item is somewhat obvious: other visual records of a particular Commander-in-chief, especially a pre-Civil War one, might be few and far between.

I’m not saying those records don’t exist (see below pic). Consider the fact that most US currency (and none of the four major presidential coin denominations in circulation), and many of the presidential bios at whitehouse.gov do not feature official presidential poses, so to speak. Those stately visages must have come from alternate sources (e.g. lesser-known historical pics), even if those sources were just artist renderings.

Young Lincoln circa 1846

My point is that your typical White House painting is more accessible to the average Joe Collectible-maker, especially if he doesn’t have the “exclusive presidential depictions” hook-up.

And you, the reader, could do a lot worse than follow the examples of The Franklin Mint, American Mint, and the day after store. Ergo, take a part or all of a presidential portrait picture from the gallery, slap it on a coin or vinyl sticker, and include a famous US motto like “In God We Trust,” “Liberty,” or “E Pluribus Unum.” Lastly, don’t forget to throw in a national symbol – The Great Seal, an eagle, olive branches and arrows, etc – and/or a significant national edifice or structure – e.g. the Statue of Liberty, the Capitol, Mount Rushmore.

But remember, you can take the production of pseudo- presidential currency and presidential collectibles only so far. So please be responsible: don’t drink and print counterfeit money. The Secret Service and US Treasury tend to frown on that kind of behavior, to say the least…