1904 St. Louis Exposition Medals by Weinman!
Zoins
Posts: 33,910 ✭✭✭✭✭
This is one of my favorite medals from an artistic perspective. These were done by Adolph Alexander Weinman.
The eagle on this one is just a stand out in terms of detail, relief and toning.
I just have this one right now but it seems like a full set of these would be 6 medals.
Does anyone know how many of these medals exist? Is there a census of some kind?
This Smithsonian page says the standard Silver Medal could be purchased for 50 cents.
https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/louisiana-purchase-exposition-silver-medal-1904-24934
Here's some info from https://www.expositionmedals.com/1904/ which seems to be down now. The following is from the Google Cache:
1904 St. Louis Louisiana Purchase World's Fair Exposition Medals
These are some of the most popular and collectable of all exposition medals. They are interesting because of their unique shapes and design, the unique material they are made of, and 5 levels of medals awarded. The exposition itself was popular and interesting also.
All of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition award medals were designed by Weinman and struck by the U.S. Mint at Philadelphia. The various award medals had different overall shapes, but common central designs.
The Engraver's Notebook (U.S. Mint at Philadelphia) for 1906:
- 3,300 Grand Prize
- 9,000 Gold Medal
- 11,550 Silver Medal
- 10,000 Bronze Medal
- 6000 Commemorative (same as Gold award but with Commemorative in tablet on reverse
All of the medals were issued in the new bronze alloy, which was at first called "government bronze." The inscriptions on the tablets noting the award as "gold medal," "silver medal," etc. are merely descriptive and do not refer to the type of metal used. Some have original boxes and some have display frames. These attractive medals were good ones to display.
Comments
Not sure but that’s an awesome looking medal the color is so pleasing!
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/publishedset/209923
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/album/209923
Outstanding!
I love this celebration of my old home town!
Beautiful! Is that "A. Weinman" on the lower right obv? Have to squint.
That's what I call a dual-porpoise medal...
Man, you look at something amazing like this, and then look at what the modern mint produces in terms of design ... and it’s depressing.
Weinman did a wonderful job on designing these medals. I have a couple of them and I wouldn't mind getting them all. The biggest challenge is finding them in their original boxes.
Can you post yours? Would love to see your medals in the original boxes!
I would have loved to have gotten an original box but I picked up this one mostly for the color.
Good eye!
It says:
I addd Weinman to the title of the post
Beautiful medal... Amazing rendition... I realize making medals is not the same as striking millions of coins. However, we do know that coin art can definitely be improved... Examples abound St. Gaudens, WLH, foreign coins etc.... We could do better, and should. Cheers, RickO