Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Texas Centennial half dollar/archive1

Texas Centennial half dollar

 * Nominator(s): Generalissima (talk (it/she), Wehwalt (talk 19:58, 12 July 2024 (UTC)

Ah, the United States commemorative half dollars. By the 1930s, these were getting much less special as every nonprofit in the country seemingly tried to fundraise through one of them. The Texas commemorative half is famed for its absurdly intricate reverse design, which is a great example of the pitfalls of coin design by committee. I initially planned to bring this up to FA by my lonesome, but Wehwalt took an interest to it and added a bunch of contemporary newspaper sources, so now it's a co-nomination! Hope you enjoy the read. Generalissima (talk) (it/she) 19:58, 12 July 2024 (UTC)

Image review


 * Some images are missing alt text
 * I've added for all not having them excluding the infobox where the image is described.--Wehwalt (talk) 15:31, 13 July 2024 (UTC)


 * File:Pompeo_Coppini_LCCN2014686250_(cropped).tif: when and where was this first published? Nikkimaria (talk) 14:44, 13 July 2024 (UTC)
 * I've removed a tag from the image page that implies publication, and left the one that this is part of the Bain collection and freely usable.--Wehwalt (talk) 15:31, 13 July 2024 (UTC)

Joeyquism
Throwing in my hat for a prose review. Should get to this in a couple days; personal life has been really wearing me thin recently, so if I somehow don't get to it in that time, feel free to ping me liberally. joeyquism (talk ) 23:42, 14 July 2024 (UTC)

Love to see the Texan representation here. Below are some things I've noted, some of which are nits; as always, you are free to refuse any suggestions with justification:

Lead
 * "...while the reverse is a complex scene incorporating the winged goddess Victory, the Alamo Mission, portraits of Texan founding fathers Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin, alongside the six flags over Texas." - I was a bit confused by this sentence (I find that I am unable to properly articulate why it was confusing - I will say that it reads as an incomplete list with no "and" to signify the end of the list). Perhaps wording it so that the six flags over Texas goes first (e.g. "incorporating the six flags of Texas alongside the winged goddess") or adding "and" before "portraits" would be better?
 * Since the flags are not prominent, I've adopted your suggestion to add and, with a couple of other slight modifications.--Wehwalt (talk) 18:02, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Authorization
 * Pretty straightforward, no glaring issues I could spot. The only thing I personally had trouble with was the sentence beginning with "Bertrand H. Snell of New York asked how the coinage dies would be paid for", as I had been thrown off by the use of "dies" as a reference to both the minting term and the last name of the congressman. Just a little unlucky coincidence there; I'm not sure that wikilinking Coining (mint) would be worth it as it seems redundant in the context of this article, though I will suggest it anyways for your consideration.
 * Instead, I've added "Congressman" before Dies' last name. It may still be a little jarring but it's unavoidable.--Wehwalt (talk) 18:02, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Preparation
 * "Coppini had previously designed various public monuments in Texas, prominently including..." - I am not sure of the inclusion of the word "prominently" here; it feels out of place to me. This is not a pressing issue, however, and will not significantly influence my vote.
 * Cut.--Wehwalt (talk) 18:02, 16 July 2024 (UTC)


 * "Charles Moore, the chair of the commission, had become critical of the commemorative half-dollar series, and took an especially dim view of Coppini's initial models, describing them as a conglomeration of 'the whole history of Texas and all its leading personages in a perfect hodgepodge.'" - The quote does not appear to be that critical to me; is there perhaps a more scathing quote that would better convey Moore's disdain for the models? I understand that "hodgepodge" here would be used for its more literal definition ("a confused mixture of different things" according to Cambridge dictionary), but I think today it is more colloquially used to mean just a heterogenous mixture. Plus, the addition of "perfect" sends a mixed signal; perhaps paraphrasing the quote here and using a quote for Lawrie's criticisms could be beneficial. I recognize that this is a silly critique and that you have no control over what a guy who died 80 years ago says, so if there's no such quote and/or you find it to be silly as well, feel free to ignore this comment.
 * There is a more scathing quote and I've included it.--Wehwalt (talk) 18:02, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Design
 * No glaring issues with the design description. I do wonder if the reception section could be rearranged into paragraphs focusing on positive and negative feedback, but this is mostly coming from my experiences with album reception section organization, and I'm not sure if this is appropriate for numismatic articles.
 * With over forty commemorative coin FAs all following similar formats, I'm inclined to say, leave it as it is.--Wehwalt (talk) 18:02, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Production and distribution
 * "The first coins to be vended were sold on December 15" - Is "to be vended" necessary here? It feels rather redundant.
 * Sometimes the first coins struck by the Mint were sold at a premium. This is not such a case. These, so far as can be ascertained from the sources, were simply the first ones sold. I think if we deleted that phrase, there might be ambiguity.--Wehwalt (talk) 01:26, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Makes sense to me. In that case, leave as is. joeyquism (talk ) 02:40, 16 July 2024 (UTC)


 * "Some of the coins were placed on exhibit at the Austin Chamber of Commerce so the public would know what they looked like" - Could benefit from a more formal wording; something like "for public viewing" would suffice.
 * I've reworded a bit.--Wehwalt (talk) 18:02, 16 July 2024 (UTC)


 * "Civic organizations and other groups joined the Legion in selling the coins" - Who are these other groups? If there are no details on them, that is okay.
 * The source says "various business and civic organizations and schools". That's what we got on that. I saw some references to local chambers of commerce in other sources, if that helps.--Wehwalt (talk) 01:29, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Thank you for this information. I think it could be worth it to include these details here for the sake of clarification, but ultimately I will leave this up to you. joeyquism (talk ) 02:40, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Actually, the only group I can find specifically named is the Austin Chamber of Commerce and as far as I can tell, they only displayed the coins, and did not sell them.--Wehwalt (talk) 17:48, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Given that information, I would maybe include the businesses and schools and omit the Chamber of Commerce. Regardless, this is still up to you and should not affect my decision going forward. joeyquism (talk ) 17:58, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Collecting
 * No glaring issues.

A wonderful article. Much of this is already in good shape, so I think that many of my criticisms can likely be ignored. Still, I look forward to reading your responses, and I will likely come back to support after they have been addressed. Great job from you both, and I hope you have a wonderful week ahead. joeyquism (talk ) 22:40, 15 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I've done or responded to all.--Wehwalt (talk) 18:02, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Looking good, glad to support here. I also have an FAC open here, if you have the time. Of course, you are not obligated to review, though it would be much appreciated. joeyquism (talk ) 18:45, 16 July 2024 (UTC)
 * It sounds interesting. I have one promised review I have to do and then will get to yours, likely by the end of the weekend. Wehwalt (talk) 19:03, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Comments from PMC
Putting myself down for a look. Poke me if I don't get to it within a week! &spades;PMC&spades; (talk) 01:17, 16 July 2024 (UTC)