Expert-level US medals challenge
jonathanb
Posts: 3,752 ✭✭✭✭✭
I posted this to last week's E-Sylum but I think I'm going to post here also, just in case anyone here isn't also an E-Sylum reader. If you're not reading E-Sylum, boo on you. Wayne Homren does a fantastic job. It's published once a week, and every issue has a very dense collection of interesting and topical info. Plus occasional fun stuff like this. It's free, so you really have no excuse!
Expert-level US medals challenge
I think that anyone short of an expert will have a hard time answering more than one or two of these questions. But we've got some experts here! Let's see how folks do, or if I've come up with a stumper. :-)
I'm showing the wreaths on the reverses of four different US medals. Three of these I've had for a while; the fourth one is a new purchase. And a jaw-dropper of a purchase also — but for reasons that are not exactly related to this challenge and that I'll reveal afterwards. For now, give this a shot:
1: Besides obvious trivial details (They're all round! They're all silver! They all have wreaths on them!), what do the four medals have in common? [difficult]
2: Identify each medal:
- A (30.5 mm): [difficult]
- B (30.5 mm): [expert-plus]
- C (36.1 mm): [expert]
- D (36.1 mm): [expert-plus]
Answers will be posted here on Sunday evening after the next E-Sylum comes out. Unless someone figures out all four before then! :-)
A. 
B. 
C. 
D. 
Comments
Laurel
On "C" the things that look like acorns are really batteries to power lights hidden behind the leaves.
Laurel and Oak
Oak
Olive
You forgot cucumber, cotton, and mayonnaise....
All are composed of two springs joined with a bow at the bottom of the wreath.
Recipients of the four medals are:
1. Dead person
2. Dead person
3. Another dead person
4. Dead persons and a horse
@jonathanb I've been receiving it by email since joining the ANA. Awesome stuff!
Edited for spelling
They all have a stepped rim, consistent with (but not limited to) 19th Century US Mint medals.
As promised, the answers -- and the twist!
As Dan surmised, all four of these are US Mint medals listed in Julian. In order, they are:
Julian CM-3. The obverse of this medal is more commonly paired with a text-heavy reverse that features an Oath of Allegiance (CM-2). The wreath reverse is unpictured in Julian but several examples have been sold over the past few years.
Julian SC-26, the Iowa State University award medal. This is a very, very rare medal. Julian could not find an example to picture in his book, knowing of it only from the mint records and a surviving obverse die. He writes, "There may be a reverse for this medal, as Irish paid $75 for the dies, which seems high for just one lettered die." Yes, there was a reverse!
Julian SC-27, the Toner medal for Jefferson Medical College. This is pictured in Julian, where it listed as 32 mm. This is also a very rare medal, so much so that I don't have an example. I'm showing the pictures from Julian instead. The 1986 Dreyfuss sale included an example that confirms that the diameter is actually 36 mm and that the smaller size reported in Julian is incorrect. If you think it's odd that I can show you the reverse in the original challenge while also saying that I can't show you the obverse of the actual medal here… keep reading!
Julian SC-32, the Pennsylvania Blind Institution award medal. This is another very, very rare medal. Julian has a photo of the obverse but not of the reverse.
When I posed this challenge, I thought that someone might be able to identify CM-3. It's rare but not impossibly rare, and the wreath is fairly distinctive. From there, someone could realize that all of these have the "look" of US Mint medals of this period, and get a plate match to the photo of SC-27 in Julian. The other two (SC-26 and SC-32) are so rare and unpictured in Julian; it would have taken some doing for anyone to identify those without having examples of their own.
All of this brings us back to 2C. This was my recent purchase. I bought it online with one other piece, because it looked odd. I didn't think much about it when I bought it, or when I opened the package. Then I looked at it again. And I looked at the piece that came with it. And then I realized what I was looking at and my jaw hit the floor. (And then it took me 15 minutes to button everything down and confirm my hunch!)
This is 2C again, on the left, and its flip side on the right. Look familiar? The piece I bought is a mule of the reverses of Julian SC-27 and SC-32. This is unlisted. As far as I know, it's also unprecedented. There are many mules known of the larger US Mint medals in the MI- and NA- series. Also, some of the obverse dies were intentionally struck with several different reverses, such as the series of dated medals for the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association (Julian AM-34 through AM-41) with the same obverse and different reverses in different years. This may be the first example of a mule of two different small-size award medal dies originally intended for other US Mint medals, repurposed as a totally new award medal. This wasn't even on my radar as something that might possibly exist.
The other piece I bought with this? It is of course a mule of the reverses of CM-3 and SC-26.
Normally I'm skeptical when anyone claims to have found an unlisted US Mint medal. In this case, I'm calling it. We have four dies that are known to produce US Mint medals, and only known to produce US Mint medals, now seen in two pairs of struck mules. These have got to be legitimate (if clandestine!) US Mint medals as well.
…and if you're still in doubt, there's the matter of the recipients. Medals of this type are normally called award medals, for the very obvious reason that they were normally awarded as prizes. It looks like my mules were also awarded, to Mary Colton Calhoun on January 18, 1871 and to Jane Duncan Calhoun on May 14, 1877. Appearances can be deceiving — those aren't award dates! Mary Colton Calhoun and Jane Duncan Calhoun were the second and third daughters of James Richardson Calhoun and Marie Louis Barth. Those are their BIRTH dates. The Calhouns lived in Philadelphia (huh!), specifically in the 10th district of the 3rd ward, which (of course!) is the ward that contained the US Mint building. In the 1870 census James Calhoun is listed as a clerk of the US Asst Treas.
How about that!