John H. Diehl's Medals - Philadelphia Die Sinker

Zoins

I recently discovered that a piece of mine that I had attributed to George Bache Soley may actually be from John H. Diehl! Here's a thread by @ZoidMeister where I tracked this down by the nudging of @GoldenEgg ! It's not a 100% slam dunk yet, but it's getting closer.

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1062747/ran-across-an-interesting-george-soley-lords-prayer-medal#latest

Post any pieces by J. H. Diehl here

Of note, Dick Johnson's Medal Artist's Databank indicates John flourished from 1969 and 1883 and one of his medalette's is from 1900 so the company may have been taken over by someone else at the time, or he could have still been involved as he lived until 1913.

He worked at 728 Chestnut St, Philadelphia per his store card.

There is also a John H. Diehl who was a member of the Philadelphia House of Representatives in 1848 and 1849.

John H. Diehl

• Born: 7 Jan 1837, Philadelphia
• Died: 11 Feb 1913 (aged 76), Philadelphia
• Active:1869-83

Here are some links:

• Dick Johnson's: http://www.medalartists.com/identifying-initials.html
• FindAGrave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/81725947/john-h-diehl
• Medallic Portaits of Washington by William Sphon Baker: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/512400?page=188
• Philadelphia House of Representatives: https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/BiosHistory/MemBio.cfm?ID=9201&body=H

1893 Trenton Battle Monument Lord's Prayer Medalette - Copper, Gilt - by John H. Diehl?

This is unlisted in the Musante and Baker references on Washington medals, but should be included as Washington is on top of the monument and it was collected by Baker.

This looks like a Soley piece but the reverse die looks like a 1900 piece that was embedded in a medal by John H. Diehl. It could be that Dielh did this piece or he/others ordered this from Soley.

Here's a storecard he shares with William H. Key:

(no date) John H. Diehl William H. Key Store Card - Copper, Plain Edge - Miller PA 264, Rulau Pa-Ph-188 - NGC MS66 RB - Ex. Robert Adam

https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-RKVVG/pennsylvania-philadelphia-undated-1869-1880-wm-h-key-and-jh-diehl-rulau-pa-ph-188-copper-plain-edge-ms-66-rb-ngc

Zoins

Bill of CoinPeople posted an 1893 Trenton Battle Monument piece which is holed an indicates it may have been worn on a stick pin.

https://www.coinpeople.com/topic/16787-battle-of-trenton-monument/

Namvet69

I loves me some research to bolster a piece. Thanks for the initials reference. Peace Roy

NumisOxide

Very interesting! Keep up the research.

Zoins

Here's an additional nuance that @ZoidMeister and I have been discussing regarding the 13mm Lord's Prayer Medalettes like the 1893 Trenton Battle Monument above. It could be that Dielh was ordering the medalettes from Soley, two of which have a similar reverse are dated 1893 and 1900.

It will be good to trace more of Diehl's work to look for similarities. There were quite a few die sinkers in the Philadelphia area at the time and it would be useful to catalog all their works.

@Zoins said:

It could be as Soley was active at the time and Dick Johnson indicates John H. Diehl was not active, but Diehl was a die sinker so it would be interesting if he used someone else's medals. It could be that someone who is not a die sinker had taken over Diehl's company by that point and needed Soley to make the medals. It would be interesting to compare these to Diehl's other work of the period. Both were in Philadelphia as well.

I have wondered why this reverse die style would exist if this was Soley's work as he had other dies used with his expo pieces and this die style isn't generally associated with the expo pieces. The more common expo piece prayer dies were used to at least 1901 and the pieces here are from 1900 and 1893. It could be that Soley used this die style for contract work he did for others like John Diehl?

291fifth

Medals are so much more interesting than typical coins. You actually have to do some work to get the full story on them.

Great post!

GoldenEgg

Here is an example of a piece within the encasing by Diehl. I took these photos off of a seller on ebay.

I would like to know how you connected the Trenton piece to Diehl. Was it the reverse die? Edit: never mind! I caught up on the other thread now! Thanks!

And you are right, it is possible that Diehl had Soley create the tokens for insertion into the encasements. Or, Soley had Diehl to create the encasement for him! I really don’t know as I have no reliable source of info.