DON EVERHART'S CAREER IN COINS, PART 5

During my employment at the Mint I had many designs picked to be coins and medals; in fact, a few of the coins I worked on went on to be chosen as Coin Of The Year (COTY).

Two in particular stand out. The Baseball Hall of Fame curved coin (the first curved coin to be struck by The United States Mint), and the March of Dimes Commemorative Silver Dollar coin.

 
Baseball Hall of Fame Five Dollar Coin (left). Don Everhart and Brooks Robinson (right). Images: United States Mint / Illustration: CoinWeek

The COTY award is given by Krause Publications. Awards are given by a panel of international judges based on design, artistic vision and craftsmanship. All countries are eligible to enter.

The 2014 Hall of Fame Baseball Coin of the Year was awarded on February 6, 2016 in Berlin. The obverse design consisted of an open baseball glove, designed by independent artist Cassie McFarland of California. The design of the obverse was selected through a competition open to all United States citizens.

My reverse was chosen from designs submitted by the Engraving Department at the Mint. I remember being present at the committee meetings. The CCAC had narrowed down the reverse submissions to two designs: Phebe Hemphill's excellent design and mine. Phebe had a strong design, and I thought that it would be selected. In the end, however, mine won out and I was elated, to say the least.

As a child, growing up in York, Pennsylvania, I was an avid baseball fan. I can remember my dad and I driving to Baltimore from York to attend a Yankees – Orioles doubleheader (yes, they actually played doubleheaders back then, and didn't charge you for two games). While my dad rooted for the New York Yankees, I was an Orioles fan. I got to see Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford and Roger Maris play. But, being a fan of the O's, my heroes were Frank Robinson, Jim Gentile, and, in particular, the great Hall of Fame third baseman, Brooks Robinson.

In October of 2013 an event was to be held in Washington DC to launch the Baseball Hall of Fame designs and Cassie McFarland and Brooks Robinson were to be present. I was excited to meet both of them, especially my boyhood baseball idol, and eagerly anticipated the meeting. However, there was a government shutdown and I resigned myself to missing a great opportunity to meet Brooks. Needless to say, I was quite disappointed.

One night I was watching TV and the phone rang.

Don?

Brooks Robinson here, how are you doing?

I almost fell out of my chair!

Ken Meifert, Vice President of Sponsorship and Development of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York was representing the Hall as the stakeholder. We had met at previous meetings and talked baseball, and naturally the conversation turned to my years growing up as an Orioles fan. Ken had called Brooks after the cancelled launch and told him that I was a lifelong fan and how disappointed I was to not be able to meet him. I will forever be thankful to Ken for this. Brooks and I talked for about 20 minutes, sharing tidbits from when he played for the Orioles and previously for the York White Roses minor league team.

When I began sculpting Cassie's obverse with the glove, I felt I needed additional reference material. Her design was excellent and a worthy winner, but personally I felt that it needed more detail to give the glove authenticity. One day, after arriving home from work, I started looking for a baseball glove to use as reference. I managed to find my son's little league glove. I took it to work the next day and was surprised to see that it was practically an exact replica of the glove in Cassie's design! I used the glove as a reference and it enabled me to see a lot of small details that gave my sculpt a more realistic and authentic look. Details such as the wrinkles and folds near the fingers of the glove and the overall look of textured leather really made the sculpt work.

 
Don Everhart working on the Baseball Hall of Fame commemorative coin obverse design. Image: United States Mint

Next, I finished the reverse sculpt and was quite proud of it until it was relayed to me that I had the seams on the baseball backwards! I had so many variations of the reverse design in my files that when it came to the sculpting part, I chose the wrong design. This is something that the layman probably would not notice but it didn't escape the Hall of Fame stakeholders. I frantically went back to work and within a day I had the baseball seams true to form.

I am quite proud of the part I played in bringing this coin to fruition. However, it was a group effort that involved many people working within strict parameters on a tight deadline on a curved coin configuration that we hadn't done before. Congratulations to all who worked on it.

To read the complete original article, see:
Don Everhart: My Career in Coins, Part 2 – The United States Mint (https://coinweek.com/editors-choice/don-everhart-career-in-coins-part-2-the-united-states-mint/)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
Don Everhart's Career in Coins, Part 4 (https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n08a17.html)

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