Prompted by this satirical look at the new nickel designs The Noble Pundit makes some interesting historical comparisons and provides some great graphics of older coins. In academia the Treasury’s work, if left undocumented, would probably be considered plagiarism.
Chris also argues that:

The Romans used their coinage for propaganda which is why they had multiple reverses. While our coinage is a reflection of who we are, it is not a propaganda piece.
Our coinage should reflect a certain dignity.Multiple reverses take away from that dignity. That’s why I don’t really like the state quarters or the new nickels. They look nice, they’re interesting to collect, but I don’t really think that they are a good representation of who we are as a nation.

Given what you can buy with a nickel or a quarter these days I’m not sure there is much dignity left to take away and it is not at all clear that US coinage is not also progaganda.