Set Description
Human beings are the most commonly depicted element on coins and paper money. Presidents, monarchs, dictators, allegories......these are just a few of the people and types of depictions that can be found on coins. However, there is one group of people who have been somewhat neglected in the world of coin design and they happen to be one of my favorite groups of people........as you can probably guess from the name of this set, I'm talking about infants.
While I am not a parent myself, I absolutely adore little infants! They are just sweet little bundles of chubby cuteness that are also amazing and fascinating brand new people. I'm an educator in my professional life and while I work with adults, I'm absolutely fascinated by the learning process of infants. They learn so many complex tasks relatively quickly and easily that are very difficult for adults to learn. Just think of all the things a baby learns in its first year.......they learn to walk, eat solid foods, they begin to use language, they learn more and more complex social behaviors.....all by observation and interaction. Babies really are amazing little people.
Babies are also an excellent example of evolution at work. Babies are irresistible and not just to their parents and family members. They are irresistible to almost everyone, ensuring that if something happens to their primary caregivers, they can easily and quickly find another one. Their cute appearance, endearing vocalizations and adorable gestures ensure that our species will continue and that most of our reproductive events will be successful, which is of vital importance for an animal which uses a K reproductive strategy (fewer offspring with higher levels of parental care and higher levels of survival among the offspring). I'll say it again; babies are amazing!
Sadly, even though babies are so amazing and they are such a huge part of human life, their presence on coins is minimal. To me that just seems crazy. Coins tend to represent things that human beings revere, whether it is symbols, or other people or non-human animals. And these things appear on coins with frequency. Not so with babies. Even though they are deserving of our care and reverence and they definitely attain these things in many arenas, depictions of infants are definitely scarce in coinage art.
Set Goals
The goal of this set is a simple one: to collect as many different coins depicting babies on them as possible. As depictions of infants are relatively scarce on coins, this set will be small by necessity. As with my Avians: The Dinosaurs Among Us set conveys my love, admiration and fascination with birds and other dinosaurs, I aim to have this set convey those same feelings which I have for infants.
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| Working to Keep Babies Healthy |
United States
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S$1 2015 P MARCH OF DIMES
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NGC MS 69
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This first coin is one of the inspirations for this thematic project of coins featuring infants. The March of Dimes was founded by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (who is pictured on the coin) in 1938 as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. The initial goal of the foundation was to combat the polio epidemic which was a major health threat at this time in history. The name the March of Dimes came from a 1938 fundraising effort by Eddie Cantor, a major radio and screen star at the time. While I find Mr. Cantor's radio and screen work, which derived most of its humor from harmful and offensive racial and ethnic stereotypes, reprehensible and I further think that he was a very nasty person in most areas of his life based on what I've read about him, this fundraising effort was one good thing that the man did. Cantor's effort led to the raising of over $85,000 ($1,504,529 in 2018 dollars). After this, The March of Dimes became the unofficial but widely used name for the organization, which funded the Salk polio vaccines, which is named after its inventor Dr. Jonas Salk, who appears on the obverse of this coin with President Roosevelt.
In time, the scope of the March of Dimes widened to fight any threats to the health of babies and their mothers, a mission it continues to work towards today. In 2007, the March of Dimes Foundation became the official name of the organization. I love the reverse of this coin, which shows a sweet little baby cuddled in an adult hand, keeping the little person safe and comforted. It is a great allegory for the mission of the March of Dimes Foundation.
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| The First Days of Bonding With a New Baby |
CANADA - 1968 TO DATE
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S$20 2013 TENDER BONDS
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NGC PF 70 ULTRA CAMEO
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In 2013, Canada released a gorgeous three coin set to celebrate the birth of the Royal Infant, Prince George of Cambridge. While many countries in the Commonwealth of Nations released coins to commemorate the birth of Prince George, most of these coins consisted of Royal cyphers and coats of arms, the Canadian issues are markedly different and instead focus in on the wonderful experiences that go along with the first days with a new infant.
This coin, entitled Tender Bonds, illustrates one of the most magical moments one can have with an infant, the moment that they reach their little hand up and grip one of your fingers in theirs. It truly is a moment that can start the process of bonding with a new little person or serve to deepen a bond that already exists. Evolution has shaped infants into irresistible little bundles of cute which it is nearly impossible not to bond with and care for when you are with them.
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| Please, Baby, Please Go To Sleep! |
CANADA - 1968 TO DATE
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S$20 2013 SWEET DREAMS
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NGC PF 70 ULTRA CAMEO
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While I myself am not a parent, I do know that one thing infants often do not like to do when they are supposed to is sleep. In considering that, I feel like the next entry in the Canadian Royal Infant Set, entitled Sweet Dreams, is for the parents of a new baby. Though it can be hard to get the little bundle to sleep, they are absolutely darling and sweet when they are. When I see a sleeping baby, I always wonder what they are dreaming about. Are they processing the huge amount of new information that they take in wherever they go? Are they revisiting their experiences in the womb before birth? Or is it something else entirely? It really could be anything and that is just one of the many things that fascinates me about infants.
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| A Blank Slate, A Brand New Little Person |
CANADA - 1968 TO DATE
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S$20 2013 A HOPEFUL FUTURE
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NGC PF 70 ULTRA CAMEO
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The last coin in the 2013 Canadian Royal Infant Set is entitled A Hopeful Future and this is one of the main things a new baby represents......the future. Each new baby is a brand new person, one full of unlimited potential. Babies really are the best humans....they are blank slates and they can learn so much just through observation, which is a skill that diminishes as we get older. Babies love everyone, they haven't learned some of the nastier human behaviors that lead to hate, ignorance, superstition and violence, and there is the chance that this new person will never embrace such things. Babies feel no need to hide their emotions, and they let you know exactly how they feel to the best of their ability. A smile from an adult can easily be fake but a big, sunny smile from an infant is always genuine and it can warm one's heart on even the worst day. Babies really are the future and a chance that these new little people will grow up and do better than those who came before did.
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| Babies Making History: Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau |
United States
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$1 2004 S
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NGC PF 69 ULTRA CAMEO
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In my Avians: The Dinosaurs Among Us Custom Set, I included a coin in a Collector's Society slab as I feel that it was a piece of NGC history. With my Babies set, I desired to do the same, so I included this 2004-S Sacagawea Dollar in a NGC 25th Anniversary Black Retro Slab.
The Sacagawea Dollar is a historic coin as it is the first U.S. coin struck for circulation which depicts an infant. The infant on this coin is Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, the infant son of Sacagawea. While Jean-Baptiste would live for 61 years and go on to have a life filled with adventure, I want to focus on him as an infant for the purposes of this set.
Jean-Baptiste was born on February 11, 1805, during the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He was a very well-traveled baby for those times as he traveled from his birthplace in North Dakota all the way to the Pacific Ocean on his mother's back, which was the way that Shoshone women carried their infants in those times. Jean-Baptiste's presence served a very important purpose for the Expedition. The presence of an infant and his mother helped reassure people that the Lewis and Clark Expedition was a peaceful party with good intentions as a war party would not have an infant with them. Therefore, little Jean-Baptiste influenced the outcome of a major event in history as an infant just by being there.
As I said before, Jean-Baptiste had an interesting adult life as well, and I suggest reading about it. But I don't want to overshadow his earliest contribution to history by including that here. Jean-Baptiste also shows that even the smallest and newest among us can make history.
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