Also, of note, Jay says they may at some point in the future change base and intrigue to have the new base cards with arts.
Maybe somewhat OT, but am I the only one who HATES the full-card art Base Cards? Maybe the numbers on the originals didn't have to be so enormous, but why in the world would you go to the opposite extreme and make them such a tiny part of the card? It's terrible for user-friendliness, especially for less experienced players. Why would they not have the art on the top half like all other cards, or at least leave enough room for coin/point symbols of a similar size to those on cards like Cache and Farmland?
Germany got the best of both worlds. Nice art plus larger, eye-catching coin and VP amounts.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/1814039/dominion
But it's awkward to have the larger coin symbols when you hold several cards, since they're larger than the kingdom Treasures' corner symbols, and not quite at the upper corner. Unless you sort your hand cards with only the upper left corner visible...
And the VP amounts have no business in the upper half of the card (nor in the bottom line, for that matter), you don't need to see them when stacking your hand cards.
So I agree with Rubby (no matter the German/English difference). They should have made the base cards' design consistent with the kingdom cards (see Harem) - or, if they insisted on full-size images, at least superimpose the large (at least Harem-sized) coin/VP amount over the image at the "right position", which is the center or the middle of the lower half of the card, not the upper corner or the bottom line.
Also, the coins' images are too "crowded" and too obstrusive for my taste. The VP/Curse images are beautiful and inconspicuous enough, though...