Jeff Starck is the Senior Editor, World Coins for Coin World. He writes:

Here come the rebels.

The James Dean of world coins, the muted coin, is the hottest new trend in commemorative design.

Coins typically have the nation name on one side and the date and denomination on the other. These rule-breakers place all words and numbers on the obverse and edge and nothing on the reverse. The picture tells 100 percent of the story, an option once traditionally limited to art medals.

A Swiss 10-franc coin issued in 2015 weaves a tale back and forth across the surface of the coin. The reverse depicts one of Switzerland's most important cultural traditions, "Alpabfahrt," celebrating the return of cattle from the Alpine pastures at the end of summer.

Muted coins may have complex designs like the Swiss coin or a single centered design element.

And then there is the singular element that is repeated.

If you are of a certain age, you might remember something called the filmstrip from your school days, made up of many consecutive photographic slides spliced together.

If you took a filmstrip of a galloping horse and applied it to a coin, you'd have something like the muted $2 coin that Niue issued in 2014. Created for the Chinese Lunar Year of the Horse, the donut-shaped 2-ounce silver coin has a reverse made up entirely of a series of images showing the motion of a running horse, step by step.

To read the complete article, see:
When pictures tell the story: muted coins are a hot trend (www.coinworld.com/insights/when-pictures-tell-a-story--muted-coins-are-a-hot-trend.all.html)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
SOME RECENT COIN DESIGNS: JUNE 7, 2015 (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n23a28.html)