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FDR dime collectors – a reverse you’ve never seen.

RWBRWB Posts: 8,082 ✭
in U.S. Coin Forum
This is one of five reverse designs by John Sinnock for the Roosevelt dime. As you can tell, it’s not quite in the style of the adopted reverse. It might be the worst of the lot, although there's another that's awful, too.

image

All of the obverse and reverse designs will be illustrated in the 1929-1946 book – available…well, I don’t know; a couple of years I guess.

[Copyright Roger W. Burdette]

Comments

  • sumnomsumnom Posts: 5,963 ✭✭✭
    That is bad! It looks like Lincoln Memorial and who would ever put the Lincoln Memorial on a coin? Oh, wait...

    On a more serious note, I wonder if FG got any ideas from this design.
  • adamlaneusadamlaneus Posts: 6,969 ✭✭✭
    Eew.

    For some reason it makes me think of that scene in the movie 'Big'.

    "A building. What's the fun in that?!? Why not a bug?"
  • HotfootspinHotfootspin Posts: 430 ✭✭
    Man, I've been searching for half an hour, and I finally figured out that
    this is the War Memorial Opera House (aka just "Opera House") in San Francisco.

    Compare the photo:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Opera_House

    Where I discovered the venue:
    http://www.oac.cdlib.org/data/13030/jz/tf2f59n5jz/files/tf2f59n5jz.pdf

    Brief notes on the 1945 conference:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Conference_on_International_Organization

    Few of the online histories, including not even the U.N. web site history, indicate that
    the venues were the Opera House and the Veterans Building.

    Mark

    (edited to linkify)
    The Secret Of Success Law:
    Discover all unpredictable errors before they occur.
  • MsMorrisineMsMorrisine Posts: 32,794 ✭✭✭✭✭
    United Nations of America!

    Current maintainer of Stone's Master List of Favorite Websites // My BST transactions
  • RWBRWB Posts: 8,082 ✭
    FDR went to Warm Springs, GA to rest and prepare for the opening of the UN in San Francisco. FDR had considered resigning to take the position of Secretary General.

    Can anyone tell me what the "IIII" is about? (Yes, I know the answer....)
  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 31,997 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Four Freedoms?
    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • RayboRaybo Posts: 5,304 ✭✭✭✭✭
    What the heck has happened, I haven't seen a decent new coin design since the start of the 20th century! image
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 45,992 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Four Freedoms? >>



    There was a U.S. commemorative stamp honoring the four freedoms issued during WWII.

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The Roosevelt dime, and the Jefferson nickel were the beginning of the decline in artistry on American coinage. DP's and no artistry at all. Cheers, RickO
  • BillJonesBillJones Posts: 33,880 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Yep, bad design.

    Putting buildings on coins is always a difficult, and the smaller the coin the more futile it is to try it. Buildings can look nice on large medals that have the benefit of possible multiple strikes to bring up the detail gradually.

    The one exception that comes to mind is the reverse of the Dolly Madison commemorative silver dollar. Tiffany designed that one, not the U.S. mint which has a strong tendency to make building look like trolley cars.
    Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
  • RWBRWB Posts: 8,082 ✭
    "Bingo" CaptHenway! That was quick!
  • 291fifth291fifth Posts: 24,284 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I wonder if it was the inspiration for the Lincoln Memorial Cent reverse? I'll bet Frank Gasparro had access to the designs since he was working under Sinnock at the time they were made. (Gasparro started working at the Mint in 1942.)
    All glory is fleeting.
  • OnedollarnohollarOnedollarnohollar Posts: 2,035 ✭✭✭✭
    Shouldn't they have Social Security or the WPA themes on the back of the Roosevelt dime? Those are things more directly related to his administration. Woodrow Wilson championed the League of Nations which was the original idea adopted finally as the United Nations. I would think a reverse of a hopeful or symbolic idealization of those times would be a more appropriate and artistically gratifying theme. jmho
  • SamByrdSamByrd Posts: 3,131 ✭✭✭✭


    << <i>The Roosevelt dime, and the Jefferson nickel were the beginning of the decline in artistry on American coinage. DP's and no artistry at all. Cheers, RickO >>



    sadly, I have to agree. image
  • keetskeets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
    i think it's important to note that virtually every US coin design had its critics at the time it was first issued. only time will tell if a design is truly despised and not enough time has passed for an accurate assessment on these issues. generally that time-frame is consistent with the issue no longer being struck or in general circulation. as examples, seated coinage and even the much loved Morgan Dollar weren't cherished by citizens of the day when they first were issued.
  • scottgardenerscottgardener Posts: 1,205 ✭
    That design is so bad that I'm surprised they didn't use it.
    Improperly Cleaned, Our passion for numismatics is Genuine! Now featuring correct spelling.
  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 31,997 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I had never seen that design before, other than on the Lincoln Memorial cent, and wish I could say that I still hadn't.
    TD
    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • RWBRWB Posts: 8,082 ✭
    Yeah...that's one of the hazards of research. Sometimes it's better not to know.

    (FYI - it appears that Gilroy Roberts made the final version of the FDR dime from which the galvanos were made. Sinnock was sick. The Franklin half is almost entirely Roberts' work - Sinnock made sketches and a model for the half-dime. Real work wasn't begun until after Sinnock died, so he didn't have much input post-mortem.)
  • pakasmompakasmom Posts: 1,920 ✭


    << <i>That design is so bad that I'm surprised they didn't use it. >>

    image
  • ambro51ambro51 Posts: 13,771 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Can you show us the other designs? Would love to see the half dime concept too
  • droopyddroopyd Posts: 5,381 ✭✭✭


    << <i>Can anyone tell me what the "IIII" is about? (Yes, I know the answer....) >>



    image
    Me at the Springfield coin show:
    image
    60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
  • RWBRWB Posts: 8,082 ✭
    I'll post some of the other dime reverses on occasion - they'll all be in the 1929-1946 book.

    The Roosevelt dime story also includes some fascinating comments by Edness Wilkins. She was a coin collector and mint director Ross' personal secretary. She described the last meeting between Sinnock and Commission of Fine Arts sculptor Lee Laurie about the dime design.

    The half-dime designs were published in a Coin World article about 3 years ago. If you contact them, you can probably get a reprint.
  • messydeskmessydesk Posts: 19,882 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Yuck, although at least they put some shrubbery around it, unlike the Lincoln Memorial. The shape of the building is ambiguous, too. At first glance, you have to decide if the trapezoid-shaped part is the shape of the roof in a strict 2D elevation or if it is showing 3D perspective from a viewpoint slightly above the rectangular building. I won't even get into the offensiveness of seeing the UN referenced.
    John
    Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
  • seanqseanq Posts: 8,636 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>...the U.S. mint which has a strong tendency to make building look like trolley cars. >>




    I got a good laugh at this comment, because when I was little I thought that the back of the Lincoln Memorial cent was a trolley car. I always figured it was because I grew up not far from a trolley museum with a working track, and from a neighbor's house we would watch the cars go by and wave to the passengers.


    Sean Reynolds
    Incomplete planchets wanted, especially Lincoln Cents & type coins.

    "Keep in mind that most of what passes as numismatic information is no more than tested opinion at best, and marketing blather at worst. However, I try to choose my words carefully, since I know that you guys are always watching." - Joe O'Connor
  • RickMilauskasRickMilauskas Posts: 1,985 ✭✭✭
    I thought the building was a Walmart.

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