Last week the Commision of Fine Arts reviewed the design alternatives for the Boy Scouts of America Centennial Commemorative Coin, and made their recommandation to the U.S. Mint. You may remember back in October 2008, when we posted about the Senate passing the Boy Scouts of America Centennial Commemorative Coin Act.

Overall it appears the Commision of Fine Arts was not impressed by the quality of the designs or the process of how the designs came about. Here is recommendation they provided to the U.S. Mint:

In its meeting of 18 June, the Commission of Fine Arts reviewed the design alternatives for the Boy Scouts of America Centennial Commemorative Coin proposed for issue in 2010. Despite the large number of alternatives, the Commission members expressed disappointment with the quality of the designs, particularly as rendered in the line drawings; they suggested more care in the rendering of human figures and especially of children as depicted in the obverse alternatives. The Commission members suggested that the opportunity for artists to designs coins be more widely publicized—including notice to such groups as professional sculpture or classical arts organizations—in order to improve the quality of the designs.

The Commission gave the following recommendations on the submitted alternatives:

Obverse: A minority of Commission members supported alternatives BSA-O-04 and BSA-O-06, with the comments that alternative BSA-O-04 is particularly clear and straightforward without extraneous elements, and that alternative BSA-O-06 uses a more classical composition with profile portraits. The Commission questioned the design concept in many alternatives of contrasting a scout from the year 1910 with a modern-day scout, commenting that the distinction of hats and uniform details would be difficult to discern at the scale of the coin.

Reverse: The Commission members supported alternative BSA-R-05, which they described as the strongest graphic design. They discouraged the placement of text on scrolls as shown in three alternatives and made a general recommendation, applicable to many coin proposals, to develop an appropriate graphic design distinction between the commemorative subject-related text and the general coinage-related text.

You can see more of the designs and additional comments from the Commission in the Numismaster Article, Scout Art Eyed, Disappointment Follows.