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Marjorie Emory Simpson

The sculptor who helped design the Norfolk half dollar — and was nearly written out of it

Her initials are on the coin, struck in silver beside her husband's. Yet for decades the credit line for the 1936 Norfolk half dollar read one name, not two. Marjorie Emory Simpson was the other half of that work.

Who she was

Marjorie Emory Simpson trained as a sculptor in an age when few women got to put their initials on legal tender. She managed it once — and then watched the credit drift toward her husband for the better part of a century.

She was born Marjorie Tilghman Emory in 1910 in Annapolis, Maryland, into the tidewater country of the Chesapeake. She studied sculpture at the Rinehart School of Sculpture, part of the Maryland Institute in Baltimore — the same school where she met William Marks Simpson, an instructor there and an accomplished sculptor in his own right. They married and built a working studio together in Baltimore.

Her own passion ran to animals, and above all to horses. She is remembered for equestrian work — including a series of portraits of Maryland horses around 1940 — long before she became, for one project, a designer of coins. She died young, in 1950, at around forty.

Her craft and the one famous coin

In 1936 the Norfolk Advertising Board went looking for someone to design a half dollar marking 300 years since the founding of Norfolk, Virginia. They hired the Simpsons — William, who had grown up in Norfolk, and Marjorie. The two worked the commission together.

The result is one of the busiest coins the United States ever struck. The obverse — the heads side — packs in the seal of the City of Norfolk: a three-masted ship riding atop a plow, with three sheaves of wheat, ringed by dates and lettering that crowd nearly every spare millimeter. The reverse carries the city's ceremonial Royal Mace, a real silver staff given to Norfolk in 1753, flanked by floral sprays. Collectors have called it America's "wordiest" coin, and they aren't wrong.

Look just above the "LL" in DOLLAR and you'll find the designers' marks: WMS for William and MES for Marjorie — two artists, side by side, cut into the die. That detail matters, because the official credit so often named only him. Numismatic references long listed "William Marks Simpson" as the designer, with his wife's name omitted for reasons no one recorded. The coin itself never agreed. Her initials were there the whole time.

Her equestrian sculpture is the better measure of her hand as an artist — the Norfolk half is collaborative, dense, and built to a committee's brief. But the coin is why a stranger searches her name today, and it's where her signature survives in the most permanent material there is.

Key facts

Born
1910, Annapolis, Maryland
Died
1950
Birth name
Marjorie Tilghman Emory
Nationality
American
Training
Rinehart School of Sculpture, Maryland Institute (Baltimore)
Known for
Co-design of the 1936 Norfolk, Virginia Bicentennial half dollar
Other work
Equestrian sculpture, including portraits of Maryland horses (c. 1940)
Initials on the coin
MES (beside WMS for her husband)

Career

  1. 1910Born Marjorie Tilghman Emory in Annapolis, Maryland.
  2. c. 1930sStudies sculpture at the Rinehart School of Sculpture in Baltimore, where she meets instructor William Marks Simpson.
  3. 1936She and William Marks Simpson are hired by the Norfolk Advertising Board to design the city's bicentennial half dollar.
  4. c. 1936–1937Marries William Marks Simpson; sources place the marriage in 1936 or 1937.
  5. 1937The Norfolk half dollar — dated 1936 — is struck at the Philadelphia Mint.
  6. c. 1940Produces a series of equestrian portraits of Maryland horses.
  7. 1950Dies at around forty.

Questions collectors ask

Who designed the Norfolk, Virginia Bicentennial half dollar?

It was designed by two people: Marjorie Emory Simpson and her husband, William Marks Simpson. Their combined initials, MES and WMS, appear on the coin above the 'LL' in DOLLAR. For decades, numismatic references credited only William, leaving Marjorie's name off — even though her initials were struck into the die.

Why is Marjorie Emory Simpson often left out of the credit?

No one recorded a reason. Standard references long listed William Marks Simpson alone as the designer, a common pattern for husband-and-wife teams of the era where the wife's contribution went unnamed. The coin's own initials, MES and WMS, show both artists worked on it.

Was she only a coin designer?

No. Coins were a small part of her output. She was primarily a sculptor with a lifelong love of animals, especially horses, and is remembered for equestrian work including a series of Maryland horse portraits around 1940. The Norfolk half dollar is her single famous numismatic commission.

Was she related to the other Simpson coin designs?

Her husband, William Marks Simpson, also designed the Roanoke Island and Battle of Antietam commemorative half dollars, both struck in 1937. Marjorie's documented coin work is the Norfolk half dollar; the Roanoke and Antietam pieces are credited to William.

Sources