The Great Chicago Fire US Mint Relic Medal

Zoins

I've always liked this medal which was made from the Chicago Court House bell's recovered metal from the Great Chicago Fire. From Stack's:

Superintendent Daniel Fox assured contemporary collectors that the bell's recovered metal was indeed used to strike this issue.

These are the top two graded medals at PCGS and they have sequential cert numbers so they are likely from the same submission.

I was wondering what people thought of these two and which you would prefer.

Disclaimer: I own one of them

Here's an Everhart medal set with the small bells made of the same Court Houses Bell medal. Anyone ever seen or have a case like this?

https://www.greatchicagofire.org/item/ichi-64477/index.html

Here's a description of the bell and the fire:

It was the bell that hung high up in the cupola that sounded the alarm of the fire, until the building itself was consumed. on October 9th at 2:20am, when city hall was ablaze, the heavily ornamented and domed rooftop cupola collapsed, sending the massive bronze bell crashing down into the rubble. An image of a man posing inside the mangled bell resting on the floor surrounded by limestone foundation walls that once supported city hall was made into a period stereoview card. It has been said that witnesses reported hearing the "crash" from a mile away. Shortly after the fire was contained and rebuilding commenced, the city retrieved the badly damaged bell and placed it in storage for a few months before auctioning it off to Thomas B. Bryan of the Fidelity Repository. Bryan reserved a small portion of the bell to fashion into an alarm for his own firm, then sold the rest to H. S. Everhart & company. H. S. Everhart in turn, melted the remainder of the bell down, and recast it into several commemorative souvenirs, with the most popular (at the time) being small replicas of the original bell. Each of these small bells were accompanied by certificates of authenticity, signed by the members of the Chicago Board of Public Works. Additional souvenirs included miniature fire helmets and the "fire medals."

Here's the Chicago Court House Bell after the fire from which the medals were made and the receipt of the bell metal sale to Thomas B. (Barbour) Bryan of Fidelity Safe Depository. He lost $2 million in the fire, including his music hall. More on Wikipedia. The medals were struck for H.S. Everhart and Company. Somewhere along the way, it seems the receipt got damaged. This was found in a house slated for demolition with materials collected by John Minwegen.

UPDATE: Here's an article with before and after (the fire) photos of the Chicago Court House which housed the bell that was used to make these medals.

https://www.urbanremainschicago.com/original-chicago-fire-artifact-c-1871-certificate-from-the-chicago-board-of-public-works-announcing-the-sale-of-the-court-house-bell.html

https://drloihjournal.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-history-of-chicagos-famous-bell.html

The first bell foundry in Chicago was that of H.W. Rincker on Canal Street near Adams. In 1848 H.W. cast the bell for St. Peter's, Chicago's largest church. In 1854, he cast the bell for the Court House which was used as a public alarm. The Court House bell was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Tillie noted that one part of the bell was saved with H.W.'s name on it. When she visited the Chicago Historical Society on "Lincoln Day" she saw it. It’s probably still at the Chicago History Museum, though it could be in storage.

DCW

All relic medals appeal to me, and this one is no exception. Both pieces are appealing, but the bottom one is superior.
The hit on the obverse for example #1 is a little distracting, though it may just stand out in the Trueview.

ricko

Really nice medals... I prefer the second one... the color looks more 'fire' like...Cheers, RickO

NumisOxide

Gorgeous medals!

If I had to pick, it would be the second one. The first one I do like better but the hit is distracting.

291fifth

Nice! Also a medal I had never seen or heard of before.

U1chicago

I like them both and would choose the second as the slightly better of the pair.

thebeav

Where was that bell originally from ?

keets

this medal is Historically important and aesthetically beautiful to my eyes, but..........................I have looked at them for the past several years when they come to auction and I can't get past the fact that they all have that central, high point discoloration. it's nothing more than areas where the medal was resting and it toned slower a different color, but I find it very distracting. it's especially distracting to me when coupled with what appears to be weakness on the Eagle's breast. it's not unique to these two medals, they all look the same. still, it is a great medal.

also, while everyone seems to notice that "hit" on the one medal no one mentions the mark to the left of it. to me it seems like a strike through of some kind.

1northcoin

The one ending in 43. Just have a preference for lighter toning.

Zoins

@thebeav said:
Where was that bell originally from ?

It's from the Chicago Court House which is mentioned on the medal. The bell was used to signal public alarm - kind of like getting a public service alert on a mobile phone today. I added some photos of the court house before and after the fire to the first post.

keets

neat stuff!!

tokenpro

Here's the other famous relic medal from the Chicago Fire although it is a private issue and not from the U.S. Mint. This C.D. Peacock medal from their 100th Anniversary in 1937 contains a small piece of embedded iron from their safe that survived the Great Fire. This is the large 76mm medal which is very scarce but the smaller 1 1/4" size shows up fairly frequently at a more collector friendly price:

BLUEJAYWAY

I prefer the second example as well. More of an overall brighter look.

keyman64

2nd

Zoins

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

I'm also a fan of the 2nd medal and that is the one I own. I like the color and lack of marks. I agree with @keets that these tend to have some friction on the highest points, but I like the second one because it reminds me of a fire breathing Smaug, so that's the way I think of the eagle

Grade-wise, the first medal is finer at MS64 while the second medal is MS63.

• 37145742: PCGS MS64 POP 1/0
• 37145743: PCGS MS63 POP 1/1

Zoins

Here's one that I've admired from @illini420

http://www.kittlecoins.com/1872fire.htm

Zoins

@tokenpro said:
Here's the other famous relic medal from the Chicago Fire although it is a private issue and not from the U.S. Mint. This C.D. Peacock medal from their 100th Anniversary in 1937 contains a small piece of embedded iron from their safe that survived the Great Fire. This is the large 76mm medal which is very scarce but the smaller 1 1/4" size shows up fairly frequently at a more collector friendly price:

That's a great medal! Do we know who struck and engraved these?

I only have one of the smaller ones so far. Here's a smaller one with original envelope from the following thread. I found this via Google search but couldn't find the actual image in the thread.

Zoins

Here's one I ran across with an original case. This one looks like it was in a fire!

https://www.urbanremainschicago.com/authentic-c-1872-antique-american-intricately-designed-ornamental-cast-or-struck-bronze-great-chicago-william-e-barber-designed-fire-medal.html

Zoins

In the first post, I added a certificate indicating that the bell metal was purchased by Thomas Barbour Bryan who lost $2 million in the fire.

Of note, he was also First Vice-President of the World's Columbian Exposition.

The following is from:

The Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Representative Men of Chicago, St. Louis and World's Columbian Exposition

From The Great Chicago Fire by John Boda and Ray Johnson

Zoins

Here's a toned example which was the ATS Coin of the Day on January 28, 2019.

Zoins

Here's one of the small replica bells that Everhart had made from the same Court House bell relic metal. These were very popular at the time. Each came with a Certificate of Authenticity, signed by the members of the Chicago Board of Public Works.

Here's a display set from the Chicago History Museum. I also added a different photo of an Everthart presentation case with slightly better photos of the medal due to camera angle.

https://digitalcollection.chicagohistory.org/digital/collection/p16029coll3/id/1875

Namvet69

I prefer #2. That ding on #1 is unfortunate. Great presentation cases. I wonder if any of the little bells are floating around waiting to be rescued from a flea market table. Peace Roy

Zoins

@Namvet69 said:
Great presentation cases. I wonder if any of the little bells are floating around waiting to be rescued from a flea market table. Peace Roy

I wonder if the bells are marked in any way and how hard it would be to find one, with a COA

Zoins

Here's another view of the case at the Chicago History Museum. I'm still not sure what Mrs. O'Leary's cow bell is!

https://twitter.com/mariepiperbooks/status/915315201519624193

csweet

This is an example of one of these coins that I own.

Zoins

Very nice @csweet! Nice color on that one

coinsarefun

I don’t know how I missed this the first time around but sure glad I saw it this time!
What a beautiful piece of history, just fantastic @Zoins