The Chief Engraver who completed the Franklin half dollar and created the Kennedy portrait adopted within weeks of the president's assassination.
Biography
Roberts joined the Mint engraving staff and succeeded John Sinnock in 1948. He completed Sinnock's unfinished half-dollar work and later adapted his own presidential medal portrait for the Kennedy half dollar.
Style and legacy
His portraits use smooth high points, restrained texture, and a formal medallic profile. He was skilled at adapting larger relief models to the shallow requirements of circulating coins. Roberts's Kennedy obverse remains one of the most familiar presidential portraits on U.S. coinage. His collaboration with Frank Gasparro provides a clear example of split obverse and reverse authorship.