An official 1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt fourth-term inaugural medal in gold from the estate of former U.S. Mint director Nellie Tayloe Ross will make its first public auction appearance in Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ 2025 Summer Global Showcase Auction.

In bronze, 3,500 examples of the 1945 medal designed by sculptor Jo Davidson were produced by the Mint and sold to the public. Examples of these are re-sold on a regular basis in the secondary market.

In gold, however, only 10 examples of the medal were produced, for presentation to world leaders and government officials.

Davidson had designed previous FDR inaugural medals from multiple sittings with the president. The 1945 medals portrays FDR facing right. The reverse depicts the flagship U.S.S. Constitution in full sail.

Mint Director Ross had served as the 14th governor of the state of Wyoming from 1925 to 1927 before her appointment as the 28th director of the Mint, the first woman to hold that office. Her appointment to office was shortly after FDR took the oath of office in 1933 for his first term as president.

Ross served as Mint director under FDR, Harry Truman and early in the tenure of Dwight Eisenhower, leaving the Mint in 1953. Ross died in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 19, 1977, at the age of 101.

Stack’s Bowers Galleries released the following pedigrees for the reported 10 gold medals after they were struck at the Philadelphia Mint:
> * President Franklin Delano Roosevelt: presented at the White House, Jan. 18, 1945, two days before his inauguration. This medal was subsequently presented to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library at Hyde Park, New York, after the president’s death on April 12, 1945.
* British Prime Minister Winston Churchill: presented by President Roosevelt at the Livadia Palace, Feb. 10, 1945, during the Yalta Conference in the Crimea.
* General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin: presented by President Roosevelt at the Livadia Palace, Feb. 10, 1945, during the Yalta Conference in the Crimea.
* Britain’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Anthony Eden: presented by President Roosevelt at the Livadia Palace, Feb. 10, 1945, during the Yalta Conference in the Crimea.
* Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union Vyacheslav Molotov: presented by President Roosevelt at the Livadia Palace, Feb. 10, 1945, during the Yalta Conference in the Crimea.
* King Ibn Saud of Saudia Arabia: presented by President Roosevelt on board the cruiser USS Quincy, Feb. 14, 1945, during a conference at Great Bitter Lake, Egypt.
* Ambassador Joseph E. Davies: acquired as Chairman of the 1945 Inaugural Medal Committee.
* Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross: acquired as a member of the 1945 Inaugural Medal Committee.
* Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library at Hyde Park: ordered April 12, 1946, by the Inaugural Medal Committee, “to be presented to Hyde Park for permanent preservation.”
* Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library at Hyde Park: ordered April 12, 1946, by the Inaugural Medal Committee, “to be presented to Hyde Park for permanent preservation.”

According to Stack’s Bowers Galleries catalogers, the three examples presented to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library are still held in its museum collection. None of the other six gold examples has resurfaced, and it is unknown whether any of the five medals handed out by President Roosevelt at Yalta and Great Bitter Lake, or the medal acquired by Ambassador Davies, still exists.

“Each of the gold 1945 inaugural medals is a national treasure,” observed Jeff Ambio, vice president of numismatics for Stack’s Bowers Galleries. “Produced during the final chapter of World War II, they are exceedingly rare, saw limited distribution to government officials and world leaders, and are directly linked to the Yalta Conference that helped define the postwar world.

“Yet despite their significance, these gold medals are all but unknown both within the numismatic community and to the public. Our offering of Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross’ specimen should bring to the story of these important medals the attention it deserves.”

The Stack’s Bowers Galleries 2025 Summer Global Showcase Auction will be held Aug. 25 to 30 and Sept. 2 to 5, in Costa Mesa, California. Lot viewing available in Costa Mesa, New York City, and at the American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money in Oklahoma City.

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