Baltimore City Mint and Bob Maxey

Zoins

While researching small dollar designs on @MWallace's SmallerDollars.com, I became interested in Robert Maxey's Baltimore City Mint due to his 1985 Frank Gasparro piece. He struck medals from 1976 to about 1991.

I haven't been able to find much info on Robert Maxey aside from his medal sales. Did anyone know him or of his work?

Here's the information from SmallDollars.com:

http://www.smalldollars.com/dollar/page04.html

SmallDollars.com wrote:
Robert Maxey struck medals of various designs from 1976 until about 1991. He was a member of the Baltimore Coin Club and had many beautiful designs struck under the name "The Baltimore City Mint". His medals were struck in various metals and are marked with his initial "M".

Maxey had an ad in the 1985 issue of the Maryland TAMS (MD TAMS) Journal which is posted on the Newman Numismatic Portal (NNP). The address is listed as a PO Box:

Baltimore City Mint
PO Box 4315
Baltimore, MD 21211

https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/519410?page=16

I have a few pieces of his in silver, brass and antiqued brass. I was recently lucky enough to pick up these lead die trials:

1983 Baltimore City Mint Medal - by Robert Maxey - lead die trial

This is a mule using the the Gasparro 1977 design. I wonder if the reverse was done before the obverse and this trial was to test the reverse.

1985 Baltimore City Mint Medal - by Robert Maxey - reverse lead die trial

This was part of a 1985 St. Gaudens Winged Liberty double eagle tribute, but here the reverse is paired with a generic lead die trial die.

It says "handle with care". There are a couple of rim dings on this so apparently it wasn't handled with care, or perhaps it was done on purpose due to curiosity?

Zoins

More searches found that I posted on this a year ago with great info from @PerryHall and @JesseKraft !

Here's the thread:

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/162637/the-baltimore-city-mint

Here's an early history of the Mint found by Jesse, also posted in MD TAMS.

The effort he put in to contact the Secret Service is amazing and is probably precursor work to a lot of the tribute designs used today.

coinsarefun

Very cool. So many talented people out there and we’re just not aware of them. Thanks for posting!

Zoins

@coinsarefun said:
Very cool. So many talented people out there and we’re just not aware of them. Thanks for posting!

It's amazing how little information there is about medalists, even as recent as the 80s!

I'm glad Bob Maxey was part of the MD TAMS group and published in their journal. Otherwise, there would be even less info to go with these great pieces!

I'm also glad he put "The Baltimore City Mint" on his pieces to help with tracing, similar to how Mark Bogani and Tim Grat's "Intaglio Mint" is adding their name to some of their pieces now.

PerryHall

I joined Baltimore Coin Club around 1980 and later became a life member. I knew Bob Maxey well since he attended most coin club meetings. He was a regular blue collar working man and if I remember correctly he worked for a small printing company. He would make a sketch of a medal design and cut out pictures from coin magazines and use them in his design. He would contract with a company that produced medals (not sure which one) and they would produce those medals for him. He would then sell them mail order and to fellow coin club members. I doubt if he ever made much of a profit but he sure enjoyed this venture.

Zoins

@PerryHall said:
I joined Baltimore Coin Club around 1980 and later became a life member. I knew Bob Maxey well since he attended most coin club meetings. He was a regular blue collar working man and if I remember correctly he worked for a small printing company. He would make a sketch of a medal design and cut out pictures from coin magazines and use them in his design. He would contract with a company that produced medals (not sure which one) and they would produce those medals for him. He would then sell them mail order and to fellow coin club members. I doubt if he ever made much of a profit but he sure enjoyed this venture.

Thanks Perry! It's great Bob had fun creating and sharing these.

I hope to have a catalog of these in the future as I've been picking them up as I find them.

Zoins

Here are some photos of a few silver specimens I acquired earlier.

1986/85 Baltimore City Mint Gasparro Lady Liberty - by Robert Maxey - silver

This is a 1986 over a 1985. Of note, the token on SmallDollars.com is a 1985.

1985 Baltimore City Mint Trade Dollar - by Robert Maxey - silver

1989 Baltimore City Mint MacNeil Eagle - by Robert Maxey - silver

ricko

He produced some nice medals.... Seems it was like a hobby for him, though perhaps a bit more. Cheers, RickO

Zoins

@ricko said:
He produced some nice medals.... Seems it was like a hobby for him, though perhaps a bit more. Cheers, RickO

It's pretty neat to think someone produced all these as a hobby.

coinsarefun

He really did produce some beautiful medals. The 1989 really stands out as well done to me.

ZoidMeister

Interesting. Thanks much for the info @Zoins .

I was fortunate to have run across one of his pieces a while ago and haven't gotten around to running down the provenance.

Z
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WAYNEAS

Always enjoy seeing what other people collect!
Medals are fascinating.
Nice pictures.
Wayne

OPA

It appears that he designed the medals, but outsourced the production. Interesting designs, similar to D Carr's fantasy ones.

JenniferPaule

I, Jennifer, am the daughter of the late Paul Finck, a past President of the Baltimore Coin Club who was involved with Bob Maxey and owned a huge lot of his medals. I currently have two mules and some of the medals struck bronze and white medal. Let me know if you are interested in buying any at reasonable prices. email jenniferpaule@gmail.com

JenniferPaule

I think what I called mules are actually LEAD PROOFS.

PerryHall

@JenniferPaule said:
I, Jennifer, am the daughter of the late Paul Finck, a past President of the Baltimore Coin Club who was involved with Bob Maxey and owned a huge lot of his medals. I currently have two mules and some of the medals struck bronze and white medal. Let me know if you are interested in buying any at reasonable prices. email jenniferpaule@gmail.com

I remember Paul well and I did many coin deals with him. I always attended his monthly coin shows. He was always scrupulously honest and a real class act.