Teddy Roosevelt.....surely one of the greatest Presidents. No coin?
saintguru
Posts: 7,727 ✭✭✭
Then why have there been no coins or notes with his portrait? Look at some people who got coins like Sacajawea and Ike and Susan Ugh Anthony, yet Teddy is nowhere to be seen. Anyone know why? Bueller? Bueller?
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I totally agree with you. But don't forget He did get His image carved into a mountain side.
Pete
I am in total agreement... Teddy is one of my foremost historical heroes....He and Winston Churchill top my list of most admirable figures of prominence. He selected St. Gaudens to design the $20 gold double eagle because he wanted to beautify American coinage.... wow... we need another TR today.... Cheers, RickO
We do have another TR today......only His name expands to TRUMP. (I'm not comparing the two)
Pete
Our coinage is somewhat lame for the last 70-80 years. Yet no one seems to have any compelling interest in the aesthetic and historic value of beautiful U.S. coins anymore. Our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will have very little to chose from until they become rich. But maybe then they will be collecting $5.00 Teddy Roosevelt coins!
no where?
Ever hear of Mount Rushmore?
Far better than any coin
BHNC #203
That's even crazier than Bitecoin.
I agree, saintguru. There have been some medals though. I'm still on the lookout for one from when he was governor of New York.
1TwoBits
TR insisted that US coinage should be symbolic of themes and not serve as a memorial to any person. I believe he was quoted more than once about not wanting his portrait on a coin or currency. And not to get too political, TR was a great President... Maybe not for his style but certainly for his accomplishments.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
I think you hit the nail on the head....just as he didn't want GOD on the new coinage. He was a strangely pious man in his own way.
I think he was a mixed bag, great on coinage, not so great on foreign policy, especially in the Philippines.
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
Not quite nowhere to be seen -
2013 presidential dollar
2016 Theodore Roosevelt National Park quarter
2016 National Park Service $5 gold
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
They are "trinkets".
He was excellent on domestic policy, the coinage, the parks system, etc.. If only our Presidents could have kept the focus on improving the US, we would not be so deeply in debt.
Surprised we don't have a TR coin yet. The last 17 presidential candidates have promised change.
Roosevelt's visage looks more like Ned Flanders on that coin.
Or maybe a bespectacled Jebediah Springfield.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Partly timing. The Great Renaissance came mostly before his death in 1919, and he would not have been an appropriate figure for the 1921 Peace dollar. By then most designs were fixed in stone by the 25 year rule.
The first one to open up was the cent in 1934, but would it have looked good for his relative, FDR, to have put Teddy on a coin? Ditto the 1938 nickel. The 1916 silver designs also matured in 1941 during FDR's Presidency, but there was a war on and it was not a good time to be disrupting the coinage supply. After the war they changed the dime in FDR's honor.
A TR half dollar would have been appropriate in 1947 or so, but by then times had changed and he was no longer the commanding figure he had been four decades earlier.
He is on the tiny images of Mount Rushmore on the Mt. Rushmore commems and the South Dakota quarters.
The mint missed an opportunity to put TR on the obverse of the ATB Quarters, that would have been appropriate and they could have gone back to Washington after the series was over.
Whatever you are, be a good one. ---- Abraham Lincoln
I wonder, in a parallel universe, if we would have gotten along. Interesting fellow by any standard.
,> @BryceM said:
He also oversaw and took a personal interest in (even to the point of visiting in person one time, at a point when it looked like the finishing of the massive project was in doubt) the completion of the Panama Canal which enabled the United States to become an oceangoing superpower with a world-class navy in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Kind regards,
George
Ya, I'm a TR fan and have wondered why he isn't on a coin or bill............But there is a reason he is on that mountain. However we do have this, The USS Teddy Roosevelt CVN-71 (The BIG STICK)
Steve
Definitely one of the great ones.
BHNC #203
RE: "Then why have there been no coins or notes with Theodore Roosevelt's portrait?"
Although TR had immense public stature and appreciation, his own political party was largely opposed to his progressive ideas. You will remember that TR was put on the 1900 ticket with McKinley to get TR our of NY and into a dead-end job where he could be controlled. With McKinley's assassination, regular-Republicans were put in exactly the position they least wanted.
TR was a strong enough personality and had the pubic behind him, so Congress largely passed his proposals. But after leaving the presidency, and the election of 1912, all attempts to honor TR were blocked by the Republican Party. Multiple bills were introduced to put his portrait on coins and other national honors, yet none came close to passage.
Will there ever be a TR circulating coin or commemorative? Well Republican's ignore him because he put "country above party" and democrats ignore him because "he wasn't one of us." To many ordinary people, neither is a valid reason for disregarding one of our best and most successful Presidents.
He came into office after another President was assassinated and lost re-election. He started the Progressive movement and had many accomplishments in his life. Your correct the 70's sucked for coinage. Perhaps it is time someone come up with a coin. He died in 1919 so maybe 2019 to mark 100 years?
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Some of the TR did would not pass the political muster today. For example when Columbia blocked the construction of the Panama Canal. TR sent U.S. gun boats down to support a Panamanian revolution. Once Panama was free of Columbia, they supplied the land for the canal.
So far as 1912 presidential election is concerned, it's not hard to figure out why the Republicans were angry with TR. His third party run threw the election to Woodrow Wilson, and he broke his word to William Howard Taft, who had been a good friend.
The situation went from this in 1908 ...
To this in 1912.
Here is a rare jugate which shows TR with his 1912 running mate, Hirum Johnson.
One of TR's braver acts was to invite Booker T. Washington to the White House for a meal. It could quite a stir. There are several varieties of this button which show Washington and TR together at the table. This one is considered to be critial of TR because there is a wine bottle on the table. Boozing it up was frowned upon at the time.
Just to be clear on the timeline fot TR's Presidency, he became President in September of 1901- the youngest President ever. He was re-elected in 1904 and chose not to seek re-election in 1908. Instead, he endorsed William Howard Taft. TR was basically too young to retire from public life and was not satisfied with Taft. TR did not see Taft as following in the Progressive tradition that he had started and opposed Taft in the Republican primaries in 1912. TR basically did well in the primaries but the electoral process then was controlled by party bosses with the majority of delegates being selected through a closed state convention scheme. Taft was renominated in 1912. TR and several delegates walked out of the Republican convention. TR and these delegates chose to form the Progessive party. TR selected California Govornor Hiram Johnson as his running mate. Woodrow Wilson benefited from the Republican split and won a
majority in the Electoral College while one receiving about 43% of the popular vote.
My point in explaining all of this is that TR was not the incumbent President in 1912 so he really did not lose in a re-election effort as the incumbent.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
All of the what you wrote about TR in 1912 is true, coinkat. I have read a number of explainations as to why TR opposed Taft in 1912 and none of them have ever seemed very convincing to me. There were more anti-trust suits brought during the Taft Administration than TR's almost two terms. I think that TR just missed being president, and that he wanted it back.
That was most unfortunate, because I am not a Woodrow Wilson fan at all. I think that those who rate him as a "near great president" are well off the mark. Wilson was narrow minded man who refused to listen to other points of view. He was probably the most racist president of the 20th century.
After TR was elected in 1904, he immediately announced that he would not seek another term. Later he called that the biggest political mistake of his life. He kept true to his word in 1908 and bowed out of the race although he probably could have run and won.
Before TR's death in 1919 he was considered to be the frontrunner for the 1920 GOP nominatiion. He died in his sleep in January which ended that possible run.
Agreed. Wilson was a racist thug.
If we bring back the $100,000 bill, perhaps it should be with Teddy Roosevelt rather than Wilson...
Pacific Northwest Numismatic Association
Taft was more interested in being Chief Justice of the Supreme Court than President. Taft was more traditional in his style and approach to government in contrast to TR who was daring and pushed boundaries for the common good.
I never read if Taft was ever considered by TR as a Supreme Court nominee... TR appointed 3 justices to the high court. The last being in 1906.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Nice buttons Bill. I especially like the TR-Johnson juggate
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Love those buttons! Were it not for my numismatic interests I would definitely consider collecting those. And I'm in agreement-TR was one of the best.
Wilson was certainly a fervent racist (particularly in an era when racism was becoming more insistent and militant in the country; the apallingly racist "Birth of a Nation" was among his favorite films), but I wouldn't characterize him as a "thug." He was certainly an idealist, who, however, couldn't deal with Congress. He reminds me of the ineffectual Jimmy Carter perhaps more than any of our other presidents.
I expect most of us admire TR's iron self-discipline, strong-mindedness, charisma and boundless energy. He was the man for the times after McKinley's assassination, for sure. These personality traits became less useful to the nation after Taft, though, who was tremendously personally hurt by TR's growing, intense opposition.
The best portrayal of TR's character in cinema, IMHO, was in "The Wind and the Lion."
Here's a warning parable for coin collectors...
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/remembering-president-wilsons-purge-of-black-federal-workers
A pet theory of mine is that WWII might have been avoided if TR had been president at the end of WWI. Certainly WW did a lousy job negotiating the Treaty of Versailles. What I've read suggests that Foch ran over him. Consider TR's long-standing friendship with the Germans, his considerable foreign affairs experience and TR's nature, compared to WW's lack of foreign affairs experience and his overly professorial nature. WWII (and WWI perhaps) was one of those tragic accidents of history where the wrong people were in charge at the wrong time, IMO.
Great feedback!! Thanks.
The amount of knowledge on here is always impressive (well mostly anyway).
You don't have an uglier past then Teds mothers family. Yikes.
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He also played a major role in modernizing football in a time where fatal injuries were common.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
I became very impressed with TR after visiting Sagamore Hill.
That is on my list to do. I have been to Hyde Park
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
He was a bad bad man.....in a good way.
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Saintguru
You should look for the Fraser bronze TR plaque that was done in 1920... It has an attractive arts and crafts style and it looks great for what it is. I suspect this plague sells in the 350-500 range- possibly more. Or look for the 1905 TR inaugural medal that was made by Augustus St. Gaudens. Unfortunately, that is rare and has a value of up to 25,000 depending on condition. Joe Levine could likely help you find one if interested
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Taft was a very effective and able administrator throughout his career. But he was not a visionary; he did not inspire. TR did not invent intervention for US purposes although he used it as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in helping start the Spanish-American War. Taft managed active intervention throughout the Caribbean and Central America (see "Banana Wars).
The United States was an associate power at the WW-1 treaty negotiations, and consistently outvoted by Britain, France, Belgium and other Allied Powers. Congress gave Wilson little support and Republicans pushed an isolationist, disarmament agenda, along with damaging reparations that prevented Europe from re-establishing a stable economic order.
Wilson was not, individually, a racist. But Secretary McAdoo and others were; they did all they could to remove blacks from government positions. The administrations of Harding, Coolidge and Hoover institutionalized this in government as well as supporting suppression of voting rights and basic civil rights in many states. It took Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson to begin reversal of racial discrimination.
Teddy was indeed great but his cousin Franklin was greater imo.
If you haven't seen it check out 'The Roosevelt's on Netflix by Ken Burns.
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I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
His likeness may not have graced any circulating coins but he encouraged a few to come up with great designs...$20 Saint, $10 Indian, $2 1/2 and $5 Indian.
I own one of those Fraser plaques. Let me see if I can post a picture.
How are we this far into the thread without a pic of last year’s National Park coin?
T.R. was from back when men were men and snowflakes were something that you only saw in the winter.
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And how about last year's 5 oz ATB?
https://i.imgur.com/LQ7ntZv.jpg
It's a "genuine coin"... USMint says so, right here:
https://i.imgur.com/jZtYGPX.jpg
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