Q. David Bowers
"The drama which reached its climax on the House floor following five hours of impassioned, sometimes acrimonious de-bate was a historical first in the world of U.S. numismatics, and congressional observers searched in vain for precedent. Perhaps not since the legendary national debate over 'free silver' (unlimited silver coinage) of almost a century ago and the purple oratory of William Jennings Bryan has the U.S. Congress devoted so much attention to an aspect of the nation's coinage. 'This is the sort of thing you get for a fight on the national budget, not for commemorative coins,' one newsman observed as he followed the debate from the House Press Gallery.
"Among the most dramatic aspects of the House action was the fact that Annunzio's bill won at all, to say nothing of carrying the day by almost 4 to 1. Until the moment the vote began-a motion to substitute Annunzio's 6-coin bill for the 33-coin, private marketing measure-he was given virtually no chance to succeed. Indeed, an edition of the national magazine Sports Illustrated which hit the newsstands after the vote reported that 'Annunzio has apparently lost his battle' and, 'The plan is for President Reagan to resign the (33-coin) final measure by Memorial Day.'
"Excitement in the House became more and more electric as the huge tally boards on either side of the chamber showed Annunzio's measure jumping out to an early lead of 44 to 10, then moving to 61 to 15, to 79 to 21, on to 127-33, and then as the flow of members coming in to vote, 154 to 41 and 180 to 47. As the voting continued, Annunzio was waiting for new arrivals at the doors, greeting them as they came in, and saying audibly, 'Vote aye.' Apparently they were listening, for by 3:30 p.m. the count had jumped to the magic 218 needed for victory, showing 219 to 60, and wound up finally after a few additions and changes of vote at 302 to 84. While there was no easy or single explanation for the unexpected turnaround and resulting upset, apparently Annunzio's months of decrying the private marketing scheme, of 'exorbitant profits to marketers,' of potential world scandal, of highly paid and 'outrageous lobbying efforts,' of past abuses in the private marketing of Olympic coins, of hidden costs to the U.S. government in excess of $200 million, of a 'welfare program for Occidental Petroleum' which, he said, had not paid any U.S. income taxes in the last three years, eventually had their effect on the attitudes of his colleagues and their vote ....
"The issue was cast in terms of the 1964 motion picture Goldfinger by Rep. Thomas E. Petri (R-Wis.), in which 'the intrepid James Bond prevented Goldfinger from stealing the U.S. gold reserves' with an armed assault on Fort Knox. 'Today Goldfinger is back,' Petri told his colleagues. 'In this 1982 remake of that action thriller, Goldfinger is played by Mr. Armand Ham-mer-the man with the Midas touch when the subject is gold. ' Hammer is the 84-yearold chairman of Occidental Petroleum who testified in favor of the private marketing bill before Annunzio's subcommittee, but steadfastly refused to furnish the facts of his previous involvement with [1980] Russian Olympic coin sales or terms of the projected Los Angeles sales. He turned aside or refused to answer questions about prices, sales, and profits in regard to either past or future marketing. Petri said that 'some $260 million worth of gold and silver will suddenly disappear from Fort Knox and the taxpayer will get nothing for it .... To paraphrase the great statesman from Nebraska, William Jennings Bryan, we will not be crucified on a hammer of gold,' (A reference to Bryan's famous "Cross of Gold" speech from his unsuccessful 1896 presidential campaign against McKinley. ) the Wisconsin congressman concluded ....
"Annunzio and his supporters were clearly jubilant. Annunzio himself immediately invited the Senate to adopt his bill as a means of getting money flowing to the Olympics as soon as possible. 'Millions of dollars could be on their way to the 1984 Olympics and our Olympic athletes if the Senate accepts the House-passed version of the Olympic Coin Act, ' he said. Annunzio, who has repeatedly championed his approach as the one which will funnel all the profits to the Olympic cause without diverting funds to 'middlemen,' also announced a slight change in his slogan. 'My new battle cry,' he said, 'is all the money to the athletes-NOW.''' (Lazard Freres and Armand Hammer did not come out of the situation empty handed, for as the Annual Report of the Director of the Mint, 1983, p. 12, notes: "A special Olympic Task Force administered by the Treasurer of the United States was formed to coordinate marketing and promotional details of the program. The Task Force awarded a contract to Maison lazard et Compagnie, an international distributor, for foreign sales." U.S. military and diplomatic establishments on foreign soil were excluded from the Lazard arrangement. Coin World, June 1, 1983, p. 22, quoted Treasurer of the United States Angela Buchanan as stating that 15 respondents entered competitive bidding for the rights to market Olympic coins overseas. Further: "While three of the bidders were American firms, none submitted proposals that warranted inclusion in the final selection process. A key factor in the selection of Maison Lazard was their guarantee of $10 million in surcharges for the two Olympic committees .... ")
After a number of suggestions and modifications were considered, the office of Representative Frank Annunzio drafted a bill for three coins, which eventually served as the basis for the Act of July 22, 1982 (Public Law 97-220), which authorized 50 million silver $1 pieces and 2 million gold $10 pieces. It was specified that each $1 piece would include a surcharge of $10 or more and each $10 piece a surcharge of $50 or more. For modem commemorative coins Congress designated a certain part of the sale price as a surcharge with the surcharge funds earmarked for a specific purpose. In the instance of the Olympic commemoratives, half the surcharge was earmarked for the U.S. Olympic Committee and the other half for the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee. Distribution was through the Treasury Department. An advertising agency, D'Arcy MacManus and Masius, Inc., and a subsidiary, Poppe-Tyson, Inc., created a market blitz to help sales.
Design of the 1983 Olympic Silver Dollar
Chief Engraver Elizabeth Jones designed the 1983 Olympic silver dollar, which featured on the obverse several conjoined outlines in three layers of a discus thrower as if in stroboscopic motion. The reverse, which showed the head and shoulders of an eagle, was designed by Elizabeth Jones and modeled by Mint engraver John Mercanti.
In a 1984 interview published in Coin World, the chief engraver told of ideas in creating the 1983 Olympic dollar: ("Chief Engraver Shares Design Ideas, Woes." Jay Guren, Coin World; July 25, 1984, p. 82.) '''What can I do to bring it (the design) up into the 20th century? And what can I do to give it a little interest that hasn't been seen before?' are the kind of thoughts she pursued. She had been instructed to prepare a design featuring a discus thrower, and the annals of medallic art contain many examples of this theme. 'Some of them are gorgeous,' said Ms. Jones, 'but I didn't want to repeat what's been done before.'
"What she created on the obverse of the silver dollar coin is an implication of vast energy, combined with a sense of fast, dynamically controlled continuous motion essential to the ancient sport. The clean, abstract design, she feels, suffers from the addition of the prescribed 'clutter' required to be included in the obverse design. The Los Angeles Olympic Committee 'stars in motion' logo proved particularly distracting to the design. 'That logo is purely graphic (two-dimensional), and to put something purely graphic into sculpture, that is a different story,' she explained, that proved to be 'terribly time-consuming and nit-picking work' which failed to enhance the design,
"The chief engraver sought to imply boldness in the eagle which adorns the reverse and decided this could be accomplished best by designing a portion of the eagle only. 'I wanted to fill up the space, but in order to have a cut-off point in the eagle, I couldn't just let it blend into the background, so I have that inner circle with the legend around the outside,' she explained. 'I do like asymmetry,' she said, 'but I can't really do it as much as I like on coins, because of the technical problem of coining,' which has to do with metal flow as well as other problems. 'There are a lot of restrictions design-wise,' she said: 'Medals are very different from making coins. Problems include relief and the restriction that the design generally must be struck up with a single blow.'"