1876 Centennial Expo Award Medal
USA240
Posts: 52 ✭✭✭
What would be the original purpose of these 1876 Centennial Award Medal Shells?
I included a normal one for comparison
Approx 76MM, and is filled with what is most likely lead.
Thank you in advance!
1
Comments
I believe they may have been trial pieces struck with just a single obv/rev die and later they had a post soldered onto them.
A large-diameter medal presents a minting problem--producing medals this large is hard on dies. The original design called for 4-inch diameter medals, which the mint could not produce in quantity, so the size was cut down to 3-inch diameter medals. Superficially, those look like very interesting, antique electrotypes. These were produced from rare items, so that collectors could fill holes in their collections. However, there were lots of these medals (Julian's book says 12,000 were awarded to participants in the exhibition), so I think Keets is correct.
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
The shells may actually be electrotypes. They were likely mounted to some object - probably an item or manufacturer that won an award at the exposition.
There is a way to tell a struck shell from an electrotype. Electrotypes won't have any luster.
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
I think you are correct on these being electrotypes - I took a closer look at the surfaces and noted some anomalies.
Thank you for your comment!
I agree with this. Here is regular medal of the same design. I have the orginal box for this piece well. The box is in better condition than the medal which has some spots and scratches. Usually it's the other way around. This is a fairly common medal as 19th century medals go. The government gave out a lot of these pieces to exhibitors at the fair.