Generally, my favorite coin designs come from Austria, France, Egypt, Italy, Panama and various other countries from Africa and South America, depending on the design. U.S. coinage over the last two hundred years, as Teddy Roosevelt once said, is boring. He introduced the Buffalo nickel and the incused Indian head gold piece and St. Gaudens gold piece to bring some better design to American coinage. The best thing about American coinage, prior to 1965, is that is was 90% silver - and, of course, the Lincoln cent. My favorite American coin is the Flying Eagle cent; the first small cent in American numismatics.
I once met a woman who said coin collecting is for children, and I said you don't what you are missing. Coin collecting is money as art.
