1987 Dick Tracy Wrist Radio AMC Silver Round

MintAmerican Medallion Corporation AMC (Houston TX)

IssuerRobert E. Westfall Inc

DistributorRobert E. Westfall Inc

CollectionAMC Cartoon Celebrities Series

Dick Tracy in left-facing profile, trench coat collar turned up and fedora pulled low, a pistol gripped in his lowered right hand. His left wrist is raised to his mouth, two-way wrist radio strapped to it, with "TEN-FOUR" lettered beside a small cluster of lightning-bolt static marks above and below the wrist to indicate the radio transmission. "DICK TRACY" arcs around the upper rim in bold block letters. A small "© TMS 1987" copyright line is struck near the lower right, beneath the wrist radio.

AMC's standard Cartoon Celebrities house reverse: a stylized device of interlocking elliptical rings orbiting a central square, resembling an atom or orbital emblem, occupies the center of the field. "CARTOON CELEBRITIES" arcs along the upper rim, with a five-point star on each side at the 9 and 3 o'clock positions. "MADE IN USA BY AMC · ONE TROY OZ. 999 FINE SILVER" arcs along the lower rim.

1987 Dick Tracy Wrist Radio AMC Silver Round Overview

The 1987 Dick Tracy Wrist Radio AMC Silver Round is a 1 troy ounce .999 fine silver round issued as part of American Medallion Corporation’s (AMC) Cartoon Celebrities series, a 36-piece licensed lineup of comic-strip and comic-book characters struck in 1987. The series drew its cast from several different licensors — DC Comics, King Features Syndicate, Archie Comic Publications, and Tribune Media Services — with each round’s copyright line identifying the specific rights holder behind that character. Dick Tracy’s rights at the time sat with Tribune Media Services (TMS), successor to the strip’s original Chicago Tribune syndication, and this round’s “© TMS 1987” mark on the obverse confirms that licensing chain directly.

Dick Tracy occupied a single catalog position within AMC’s official Cartoon Celebrities Series I lineup — housed in a Dansco “Cartoon Celebrity Series, Volume 1” binder alongside the other 35 characters, distributed through Robert E. Westfall Inc. of Los Angeles. The album’s trademark key on the inside cover lists “Dick Tracy®” under the line crediting “Trademark of ©1987 Tribune Media Services,” matching the obverse copyright exactly and tying the design conclusively to Chester Gould’s newspaper strip rather than to any of the later Disney film properties from 1990.

What makes this particular character position more complicated than most others in the set is that AMC struck two distinct obverse dies under that single “Dick Tracy” catalog slot, both dated 1987 and both carrying the TMS copyright: this “Wrist Radio” design, and a second design nicknamed “Machine Gun” by collectors, which depicts Tracy gripping a Thompson submachine gun with both hands rather than a pistol and wrist radio. Neither AMC’s original packaging (OGP) nor the Dansco album distinguishes between the two — both simply read “Dick Tracy” — so the two names are collector shorthand rather than manufacturer-assigned variety designations. Secondary market research suggests the Machine Gun die is considerably more common in circulation than the Wrist Radio die, though no formal mintage split between the two has been documented by AMC or any dealer source located to date.

Adding a further wrinkle, a small minority of Machine Gun-obverse examples have surfaced pairing that pose with AMC’s generic house eagle reverse — the same “MADE IN U.S.A. / 1 TROY OUNCE / .999 FINE SILVER” die documented on AMC’s unlicensed Totem Pole and Bowie Knife rounds — rather than the standard Cartoon Celebrities reverse shown above, and lacking both the struck date and the TMS copyright line. Whether this reflects a genuinely distinct third obverse die or an unexplained production variant of the Machine Gun die remains unresolved and is flagged in the Notes below rather than treated as settled fact.

1987 Dick Tracy Wrist Radio AMC Silver Round Attribution

Mint: American Medallion Corporation (AMC) – Houston Texas Private Mint Issuer: Robert E. Westfall Inc. Designer/Engraver: Unknown — no designer or engraver credit has been located for this design.

This round carries a struck date of 1987 and a “© TMS 1987” copyright line on the obverse, so none of the site’s undated-round attribution logic applies here — both the date and the licensing chain are struck directly on the piece rather than inferred. The “Wrist Radio” designation used in this entry’s title is a collector-assigned descriptor distinguishing this obverse die from the “Machine Gun” die also struck under AMC’s single Dick Tracy catalog position; it does not appear on AMC’s original packaging, the Dansco album page, or any period AMC advertising located so far. Both dies pair with the identical standard Cartoon Celebrities reverse pictured above on the large majority of examined examples; this entry documents the Wrist Radio pairing specifically, based on the physical example examined for this entry.

1987 Dick Tracy Wrist Radio AMC Silver Round Notes

• AMC struck at least two obverse dies for the single “Dick Tracy” position in the Cartoon Celebrities lineup: this “Wrist Radio” design and a “Machine Gun” design (Tracy gripping a Thompson submachine gun). Both are collector-assigned names; AMC’s OGP and the Dansco album list only “Dick Tracy,” with no variety distinction.
• A minority of Machine Gun-obverse examples (a small handful observed against a broader survey of roughly 40 sold listings) pair that obverse with AMC’s generic house eagle reverse instead of the standard Cartoon Celebrities reverse, and lack both the struck date and the TMS copyright line seen on the majority. The obverse die on these examples also appears to carry an inner circular border framing the character portrait, a feature not present on the standard-reverse Machine Gun die — suggesting this may be a distinct third die rather than a state of the same one, though this has not yet been confirmed against a physical example and is not catalogued as a separate variety in this entry.
• No mintage figures specific to the Wrist Radio die have been located. A period Coin World trade advertisement for AMC’s Series I references a 10,000-piece limit per design at $18.95 issue price, but this has not been confirmed as applying specifically to the Dick Tracy Wrist Radio die rather than the set as a whole.
• The series’ 36 characters span four different licensors (DC Comics, Tribune Media Services, King Features Syndicate, and Archie Comic Publications), each credited individually per the Dansco album’s trademark key — Dick Tracy’s TMS credit is specific to this character and does not extend to other pieces in the set.

1987 Dick Tracy Wrist Radio AMC Silver Round References

• American Medallion Corporation (AMC) – Houston Texas Private Mint — The Texas Stacker
• Robert E. Westfall Inc. — The Texas Stacker, distributor entry
• Cartoon Celebrities Series by AMC Mint Houston TX — The Texas Stacker, collection page
• 1988 Totem Pole AMC Silver Round — The Texas Stacker, comparative reference for AMC’s house eagle die
• 1986 Bowie Knife Silver Round — The Texas Stacker, comparative reference for AMC’s house eagle die
• Numista — 1 Ounce, AMC (Betty Boop), United States — Cartoon Celebrities series background (AMC, distributed by Robert E. Westfall Inc.)
• WorthPoint sold listings — “dick tracy amc” search — Wrist Radio and Machine Gun variety survey
• Newman Numismatic Portal — Coin World periodical search, “cartoon” — source of the May 11, 1988 AMC Cartoon Celebrities trade advertisement
• 1987 Dansco “Cartoon Celebrity Series, Volume 1” album, trademark key page — collection of the author
• Documented example examined (this entry)
• Texas Stacker Archives

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