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Birth:          11 Mar 1905 Philadelphia, Pa.
Death:          26 Jan 1992 Haverford Nursing Home, Havertown, Pa.
Cause of Death: pneumonia

Notes
1981 book:
	Gilroy was for many years the chief engraver at the United States Mint in 
Philadelphia, Pa. While at the Mint, he designed the Kennedy half-dollar; his initials 
appear on the coin below the face of Kennedy. After retiring from the Mint, Gilroy co-
founded the Franklin Mint; he retired from that enterprise in the early 1970's.
	In 1981, Gilroy and Lillian lived at 67 Llangollen Lane, Newtown Square, Pa. 
19073.
Source: Gilroy Roberts (him)
Phila Inquirer 1 Feb 1992
From http://www.jeffersoncoinandbullion.com/article32.asp

Featured Articles
Gilroy Roberts: The Man Who Immortalized JFK on the Half Dollar 

Gilroy Roberts was a modest man of major accomplishments. During a busy life that 
spanned more than 86 years, he served for more than a decade-and-a-half as ninth 
chief sculptor-engraver of the United States Mint. He fashioned dozens of medals for 
the Mint, as well as coins produced by the Mint for foreign countries. He also 
designed U.S. postage stamps while serving on the staff of the Bureau of Engraving 
and Printing, the federal agency responsible for producing both stamps and paper 
money. Then, after nearly three decades of distinguished government service, he went 
on to a second career as chairman of the board of The Franklin Mint. 

Of all his outstanding accomplishments, though, one stands out above all others as 
Roberts’ most enduring claim to fame: He was the man who portrayed John F. 
Kennedy on the Kennedy half dollar. “I guess that's the thing I’ll always be 
remembered for,” he said years later with obvious pride. “And, more than anything else, 
it’s the thing I’ll remember myself.” The handsome left-facing portrait of JFK is widely 
acclaimed as one of the most attractive in modern U.S. coinage, and the half dollar 
itself is among the most popular coins this – or any – nation has ever issued. 

Roberts was born and raised in Philadelphia, the city where he would spend much of 
his career at the nation’s mother mint. He came by his talent naturally, for his father 
was a sculptor, and he grew up in a highly artistic environment. As a young man, he 
moved easily from modeling clay to wood carving and stone sculpturing. He honed his 
skills at evening art classes, studying under well-known sculptor Paul Remy, and in his 
spare time he modeled and carved small sculptures. 

His Mint career began in 1936, at the age of 31, when he passed a Civil Service test 
for the post of assistant sculptor-engraver. After barely a year-and-a-half, however, he 
took a staff position at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, D.C. 
While there, he designed a number of postage stamps, including issues honoring 
Stephen Foster, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Eli Whitney. He also engraved portraits for 
U.S. revenue stamps. In 1944, he returned to the Mint as top assistant to Chief 
Sculptor-Engraver John R. Sinnock and helped the ailing Sinnock finish the artwork 
for the Roosevelt dime and Franklin half dollar. Among other things, he added the tiny 
eagle on the Franklin half dollar’s reverse to bring the coin into conformity with a 
statutory requirement. Sinnock died in 1947, and President Harry Truman chose 
Roberts shortly thereafter as the new chief. He was named to the position on July 22, 
1948. 

Roberts designed coins for a number of foreign countries during his years as chief 
engraver, including coinage for Denmark, El Salvador, Cuba, Haiti and Liberia, all of 
which turned to the U.S. Mint for this work. He also fashioned numerous U.S. national 
medals, including the official Mint presidential medals for four different chief 
executives: Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. There 
was little call, however, for U.S. coin designs, since regular coinage was static 
(except for the new reverse of the Lincoln cent in 1959) and commemorative coinage 
was halted in 1954. All that changed in the closing days of 1963, when Kennedy’s 
slaying shocked the nation and prompted Congress to authorize a new half dollar to 
honor the martyred president. 

Roberts had met the young president at the White House in 1961, while working on 
his portrait for the presidential medal, and that session provided invaluable insights 
when the time came to prepare the new coin. “I was favorably impressed by President 
Kennedy during our brief meeting,” Roberts recalled years later. “He was very 
personable, very dynamic, and he had a very outgoing personality.” 

“He didn't give me a critique of my work,” the artist added. “Rather, he asked for my 
opinion. And he also wanted to know what political significance this medal had – 
which, of course, is a politician's view of anything that's being done. I was kind of 
amused by that, and I told him: ‘Mister President, this has no political overtones at 
all.’ In any case, I found the experience very worthwhile – and very helpful, too, when 
it came time to do the half dollar.” 

The birth of the Kennedy half dollar, like the death of the man it portrays, was very 
quick. Plans for the new coin were drafted and approved within a matter of days 
following the president's assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963 – and Roberts and 
Frank Gasparro, his top assistant, had only a few days more to come up with 
completed coinage models. For that reason, they based their designs on work they 
had already done: Roberts simply modified the portrait he had fashioned for the Mint 
presidential medal, and Gasparro reworked the reverse design that he had prepared 
for the medal, which featured the presidential seal. As soon as the designs were 
ready, arrangements were made to show them to the president's widow, Jacqueline 
Kennedy, in order to secure her approval. Roberts was summoned to Washington to 
meet with Mrs. Kennedy on Dec. 17, 1963 – and that meeting, too, remains extremely 
vivid in his memory. 

“Mrs. Kennedy was favorably impressed with the design on both sides of the coin,” he 
recalled, “but felt it would be an improvement if the part in the hair on the portrait was 
less pronounced and more accents were added. She felt the hair should be mussed up 
a little bit. And she was right; that gave the portrait greater spontaneity.” 

Although his connection with the Kennedy half dollar brought him a good deal of fame 
and tremendous satisfaction, Roberts could have done without one aspect of the 
experience. Soon after the coin’s release in 1964, rumors began to circulate regarding 
his stylized initials “GR,” which appear on the truncation of JFK’s bust. A story made 
the rounds that these were not initials at all, but rather a hammer and sickle placed on 
the coin surreptitiously to mark the very spot where the president had been shot. 
Things got so bad that the Treasury Department had to issue a bulletin denying the 
spurious assertion. “It just goes to show there are witch hunters everywhere,” Roberts 
remarked. 

Just months after the Kennedy coin entered circulation, Roberts left the Mint. This in 
itself was a noteworthy event, for he thus became the first chief-engraver to leave by 
means of retirement, rather than death. All eight of his predecessors had died in office 
– with their boots on, so to speak. Roberts “retired” only in a technical sense, 
however, when he left the U.S. Mint on Oct. 8, 1964, at the age of 59. His retirement 
was only from government service, not from his workbench and desk. Shortly 
thereafter, he teamed up with Joseph M. Segel, a Philadelphia advertising executive, 
to transform a small company called General Numismatics Corp. into The Franklin Mint. 
Before long, the firm was proudly proclaiming itself as the largest private mint in the 
world. 

Roberts’ contributions at the fast-growing Franklin Mint were both technical and 
artistic. At the outset, he oversaw the purchase and installation of minting equipment. 
Then, through the years, he personally created many coins and medals for the mint, 
including a series of coins for the British Virgin Islands and a memorable set of medals 
depicting birds. 

In 1971, after more than six years as chairman of the board, he curtailed his Franklin 
Mint duties and added the word “emeritus” to his title. In April 1980, he retired 
completely – but, once again, only from the one specific post, not from the general 
pursuit of artistic happiness. After “retiring” for the second time, Roberts continued to 
accept frequent commissions – not only from his former place of employment, but also 
from several other important clients. In 1986, for example, he designed an impressive 
gold medal for the Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. to accompany a prestigious new 
award – the Britannia Award – recognizing “exceptional excellence in the dissemination 
of learning for the benefit of mankind.” That same year, he designed a Franklin Mint 
medal commemorating the 25th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. In 
doing so, he revisited his most famous creation. 

The medal’s Kennedy portrait was entirely different, Roberts said at the time, from the 
one on the half dollar. “I guess what I was striving to capture this time,” he said, “was 
the Kennedy look – that enthusiasm and spirit of enterprise that President Kennedy 
embodied. You know, it was political when he spoke of a ‘New Frontier’ – but he had 
that sort of feeling in actuality. It really wasn’t a fake. Kennedy, in person, was a vital 
type of fellow – a real powerhouse. ‘Enthusiasm,’ I guess, is the best word to describe 
what I was seeking. The idea is that he went for this job, he beat all the odds and he 
got it – and he got it because of his enthusiasm. So while he doesn’t have an outright 
smile, I would say that he's looking pretty pleased.” 

In 1991, shortly before his death, Roberts donated his sculpting and engraving tools 
for use in a permanent exhibit at the American Numismatic Association Museum in 
Colorado Springs, Colo. He also endowed this Gilroy Roberts Workshop of Medallic 
Art, which quickly became a popular display at the museum. 

Roberts died on Jan. 26, 1992, less than six weeks before what would have been his 
87th birthday. His fourscore and seven years were filled with important achievements – 
but if he had done nothing else, the Kennedy half dollar, all by itself, would earn him a 
place of honor in the annals of U.S. coinage. 

Bryn Mawr Hospital newsletter discusses the Gilory and Lillian Roberts Foundation, 
which was set up to fund scholarships at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 
and now supports healtcare, music, arts and higher education.




Parents
ROBERTS John Taylor (2 Sep 1878 - 30 Jan 1922)
GILROY Blanche Dawson (4 Jul 1871 - 9 Feb 1954)

Siblings
ROBERTS Gilroy (11 Mar 1905 - 26 Jan 1992)
ROBERTS Beatrice Elizabeth (11 May 1907 - )

Marriage To PANCOAST Lillian (24 Jul 1908 - 31 Dec 1989)
    m. Nov 1928 Philadelphia, Pa.

Notes

Parents
PANCOAST Arthur ()
----- Rebecca ()

Children by PANCOAST Lillian 24 Jul 1908 - 31 Dec 1989
ROBERTS John Taylor ()

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