Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Roanoke Island, North Carolina, half dollar/archive1

The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by Gog the Mild via FACBot (talk) 20 December 2022 [1].

Roanoke Island, North Carolina, half dollar

Nominator(s): Wehwalt (talk) 18:07, 23 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This article is about... Another of the commemorative half dollars of the classic era, with a subject that would have been familiar if you had gone to school when I did, but probably isn't much taught today, the colony of Roanoke Island, and the birth of Virginia Dare. Enjoy.Wehwalt (talk) 18:07, 23 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Comments

"The coin commemorated the 350th anniversary of the Roanoke Colony, depicts Sir Walter Raleigh on one side, and Eleanor Dare on the other, holding her child, Virginia Dare, the first child of English descent born in an English colony in the Americas." => "The coin commemorated the 350th anniversary of the Roanoke Colony, depicting Sir Walter Raleigh on one side and Eleanor Dare on the other, holding her child, Virginia Dare, the first child of English descent born in an English colony in the Americas."
"The ships explored along the Atlantic coast and Roanoke Island, in what is today North Carolina" - wl NC
"although there has been much speculation that they perished on the island or at sea, or assimilated into a nearby Native American tribe" => "although there has been much speculation that they perished on the island or at sea, or were assimilated into a nearby Native American tribe"

I think this would be OK either way but I've changed it.--Wehwalt (talk) 15:11, 29 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

"The initial models differed from the adopted coins in numbers details" - should this say "a number of details".....?
"Vermeule described the reverse, "the frozen....." - feels like there's at least one word missing here. Maybe "Vermeule wrote of the reverse, "the frozen"

Done slightly differently.

"urged collectors not to pay from two to three dollars" - "urged collectors not to pay more than two dollars".....?

The source describes the coins as selling from two to three dollars, and I'd rather keep that as is.

"$.2.50 in 1950" - there's a stray decimal point before the 2 there
Think that's all I got..... -- ChrisTheDude (talk) 21:21, 27 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I've either gotten or commented on everything. Thanks for the review.--Wehwalt (talk) 15:11, 29 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Support -- ChrisTheDude (talk) 09:57, 30 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Moise

Hi Wehwalt, I hope you're well. This looks interesting. I'll review it. Placeholder for today. Moisejp (talk) 05:31, 10 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Moisejp ? Gog the Mild (talk) 16:06, 18 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Starting my review:

Legislation: "No coins could not be issued after July 1, 1937." Is this correct, or should one of "no" or "not" be removed? Moisejp (talk) 23:04, 18 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed. Wehwalt (talk) 23:53, 18 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Design: "Sir Walter Raleigh resembles the movie actor Errol Flynn, who was specializing in Elizabethan dramatic at the time." This seems to be using "dramatic" as a noun, or is there a word missing here? ~~And the wording sounds like it was Flynn who was doing the specializing "at the time"? If so, at what time?~~ Moisejp (talk) 23:29, 18 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Oh right, I see. I was getting the timelines confused, and of course Flynn was active as an actor in 1937. I'm striking that question. :-) Moisejp (talk) 23:33, 18 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed. Wehwalt (talk) 23:53, 18 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Minor comment but "scrub pine" is wiki-linked in the Design section, but "pine sapling" appears in the Preparation section—should the wiki-link be there instead? Also, again very minor suggestion, but in Preparation should it be "a pine sapling" instead of "the pine sapling" since the pine has not yet been "fully referred to" yet? If you think it's fine as it is, no worries. Moisejp (talk) 23:41, 18 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I've changed "the" to "a". Since the source (Swiatek & Breen) does not refer to the sapling as a scrub pine, I'd rather leave the link where it is.--Wehwalt (talk) 23:57, 18 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

"Bair stated that despite the criticism of the obverse, the reverse was applauded." Is the "criticism" here that the bust seemed more like Flynn than Raleigh? The way it's written, that paragraph didn't seem to necessarily be expressing criticism. Perhaps that can be clarified in the text? Moisejp (talk) 23:48, 18 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I've toned it down a bit.--Wehwalt (talk) 23:57, 18 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I've now finished my second read-through, and am happy to support on prose. Besides my comments above I also made several small edits. Moisejp (talk) 00:41, 19 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks. Wehwalt (talk) 17:51, 19 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Comments from Mike Christie

"Many commemorative issues were authorized by Congress in 1936, and the Roanoke Island issue was one of them." Suggest "The Roanoke Island half dollar was one of many commemorative issues authorized by Congress in 1936."
"The legislation allowed Roanoke Island groups to buy 25,000 at a time, so long as the issue took place before July 1937, and they placed two such orders." Perhaps I'm missing it, but I don't see this stated clearly in the body. The end of the "Legislation" section talks about minimum issues of 25,000 so it sounds as though these groups effectively placed orders, as wholesalers, with the government for 25,000 coins?

Pretty much. They had to place minimum orders to avoid the risk of low-issues that collectors might get shut out of and prices go high. This had already happened with other issues.

What are "Roanoke Island groups"? I think this must refer to groups with a specific interest in the history of the island, such as the Roanoke Colony Memorial Association and the Roanoke Island Historical Association, but this should be clearer in the lead.

I've massaged this.

"was determined on as a site": suggest "was chosen as a site".

OK.

"The apparent easy profits to be made by purchasing and holding commemoratives attracted many to the coin collecting hobby, where they sought to purchase the new issues." Suggest "The apparent easy profits to be made by purchasing and holding commemoratives attracted many to begin coin collecting, and to seek to purchase the new issues."

Done with a slight change.--Wehwalt (talk) 15:51, 18 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

That's all I can see to comment on. Very clean, as usual. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 20:06, 17 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Support. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 15:59, 18 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks again. Wehwalt (talk) 17:51, 19 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Source review

Suggest expanding the state abbreviations; I've been told by non-US editors that all but the most obvious are opaque.

The link for FN 11 brings up pages 7657-7713, which does not include the page cited.

Swapped.--Wehwalt (talk) 15:51, 18 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Sources are all reliable. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 20:06, 17 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the reviews. I think I've covered everything.--Wehwalt (talk) 15:51, 18 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Pass. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library)

Image review - pass

File:Lost Colony Tree - Fort Raleigh National Historic Site - Stierch.jpg - could theoretically use some kind of tag for the underlying work because there's no freedom of panorama for 3D artwork in the US, but I'm not going to be a stickler on this for what I think are obvious reasons
No real concerns about any of the other images being potentially non-free Hog Farm _Talk 23:36, 19 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Comments from HAL

first child of English descent born in an English colony in the Americas Is "English" needed before "colony"? I doubt someone else of English descent was born in a non-English colony prior to this (might be wrong of course).

I'd rather stick with how the source puts it. It seems unlikely, I agree, but it's possible an Englishwoman could have given birth in, say, Spanish Florida.

Is William Marks Simpson worthy of a redlink?

I guess. Added, once.

leaving the word CROATOAN, carved into a tree is the comma needed after CROATOAN?

I could go either way on it but I'll go yours.

Should "secretary" be capitalized in secretary of the Commission of Fine Arts?

My reading of the way MOS:JOBTITLES is being interpreted is no.

For the "Design" section, it might be nice if you had a horizontal image template juxtaposing Raleigh with a mustachioed profile of Errol Flynn. This is aesthetic of course, and totally up to you.

I've added a publicity shot from the movie but not as a multiple image, since the comparison is to the coin, not whether Flynn resembled Raleigh.

That's all. ~ HAL333 08:40, 20 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I think I've gotten to everything.--Wehwalt (talk) 13:18, 20 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Support. ~ HAL333 18:40, 20 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Closing note: This candidate has been promoted, but there may be a delay in bot processing of the close. Please see WP:FAC/ar, and leave the {{featured article candidates}} template in place on the talk page until the bot goes through. Gog the Mild (talk) 23:43, 20 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.