The bust that was used as the model for the Roosevelt Dime
BuffaloIronTail
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Pete
"I tell them there's no problems.....only solutions" - John Lennon
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Who was the sculptor?
Very cool
Mr_Spud
[citation needed]
John R. Sinnock, presumably?
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
Thats a cool piece of history by the looks of it, I like 👍
I am waiting for the AI guys/gals to get ahold of that bust and make Roosevelt animated, kind like that episode of Bewitched.
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Jo Davidson did the 1941 and 1945 FDR inaugural medals. The bust image of FDR in this thread might be by Davidson- I am not able to confirm given the angle of the image. I suspect that it might be. Davidson did some amazing work.
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Here’s a post I made back in 2017.
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Last night my wife and I had dinner in New Hope, Pennsylvania. I needed a tissue, so my wife handed me a travel pack from her purse. When I opened it up, a Roosevelt dime was rattling around inside. She asked "Is it valuable?" I immediately said no, but noticed in the dark that it was nicely toned, so I pocketed it for later.
On the way home, she reminded me that Selma Burke, credited with the original design for Roosevelt's bust, lived in New Hope in her later years. We used to see her in the grocery, in fact. Here she is:
Selma had submitted this design, sculpted from a live sitting with FDR, for a competition for the Recorder of Deeds office in Washington, D.C.
Although the relief is perhaps too deep for coinage, this image is widely believed to be the uncredited basis for the final design by John Ray Sinnock, the Mint's Chief Engraver, who had to produce a dime design under tight deadline pressure.
So to honor the local ties to Selma Burke, this ordinary dime showed up to remind me that numismatics is not always about the best or brightest coin, but about the history and context in which they were produced.
Super cool! Even from that much different angle, I would feel like the dime's rendition is as faithful as can be on such a small working surface.
Official PCGS account of:
www.TallahasseeCoinClub.com
Passing along a reference to some additional information on the topic.:
If members will consult the book “Saudi Gold and other Tales from the Mint,” they can read about creation of the Roosevelt dime beginning on page 211. Also, Chapter 10 has the story of the Franklin half dollar.
Roger Burdette