Who struck or issued the Albany Bicentennial HK-601 So-Called Dollar medal?

Zoins

I was looking at my HK-601 Albany Bicentennial So-Called Dollar and was thinking about the "Trade Mark" inscription on it.

Given that there's a trade mark, one would imagine we should be able to search a trade mark database and find the trade mark owner.

I did a quick search but wasn't able to find anything.

Does anyone know the minter/issuer of this medal or how to find an association via a trademark database?

Is there any other way to associate this, such as the wreaths used by William H. Warner as being researched by @Pioneer1?

Here's mine, which I picked up from @THOMAS655, who has a great eye for eye-appealing So-Called Dollars.

Maywood

Hibler Kappen, both editions, identify that as Tracie Mark and not Trademark. Given that the letter "R" is rounded as a letter "C" would be and that there's an extra wide space between the letters "E" and "M" that seems plausible. Also, if there were a Trademark in use it would have been the circled "R" or the letters TM, research into when they first appeared or were in common use in the United States date to an act in 1870. In either case there should be some type of symbol for a Trademark and not just the words.

Given all that I believe your close-up is of a name.

Zoins

@Maywood said:
Hibler Kappen, both editions, identify that as Tracie Mark and not Trademark. Given that the letter "R" is rounded as a letter "C" would be and that there's an extra wide space between the letters "E" and "M" that seems plausible. Also, if there were a Trademark in use it would have been the circled "R" or the letters TM, research into when they first appeared or were in common use in the United States date to an act in 1870. In either case there should be some type of symbol for a Trademark and not just the words.

Given all that I believe your close-up is of a name.

They did identify this as "Tracie Mark" but I'm wondering if the identified "CI" was intended to be a "D". Is there any other reference to a medalist by the name of "Tracie Mark"?

If is is indeed a medalist named "Tracie Mark", we should be able to find some reference to this person in history. I checked Dick Johnson's Databank and wasn't able to find any entry. Do you know if this person has been identified?

Maywood

To be honest, most of the letters in what look like two words to me are indistinct. They are clearer on the HK-601a that I posted but still not fully struck to show with clarity what they are. What does seem clear is "TRA" and not a "D" after that.

Zoins

@Maywood said:
To be honest, most of the letters in what look like two words to me are indistinct. They are clearer on the HK-601a that I posted but still not fully struck to show with clarity what they are. What does seem clear is "TRA" and not a "D" after that.

I agree it's not that easy to make out, which is why it's good to have a discussion.

My goal is to find out who engraved or struck this piece. To support "Tracie Mark" as the name of a person, it would be great to find some reference to that person. I've just never ran across a medalist named Tracie Mark.

Along these lines, do you know of a medalist name Tracie Mark or other medalist that can be attributed to this piece?

Maywood

So I've been doing some searching on this inscription and not finding anything, so I went to Heritage and enlarged the best image from their archives, an HK-601a, to try to see what I think the letters might be. I come up with T-R-A-L-I-E --- space --- M-A-R-K. I searched with different combinations of that and then just the word Tralie which gave me a reply --- it's a Dutch word for a bar on a prison window. Tralie Mark translates to bar mark. The only significance is that Albany was originally a Dutch settlement.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tralie

Namvet69

Very curious indeed. Maybe the "Trade mark" has more to do with Albany and the truncation is the most tasteful place to display the words. IMO

Pioneer1

The look and obverse lettering says "William Warner & Brother Co" of Philadelphia PA to me all day long.....

1630Boston

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1055074/a-so-called-so-called-dollar-1886-albany-bicentennial

MedalCollector

I no longer have the medal produced from the 2nd die, but to me, it looks like “TRADE MARK”.

Maywood

@GoldenEgg said: I no longer have the medal produced from the 2nd die, but to me, it looks like “TRADE MARK".

I would agree, Trade Mark is quite clear on the medal you posted. That's the first one I've seen where all the letters are cleanly and clearly struck to show a legible impression of what was intended. Thanks for posting that.

StrikeOutXXX

Can't answer your question, but while looking around found an interesting article about the medals selling together from July 12, 1886 describing them, and someone trying to copyright the term Bi Centennial on medals right about then.

Article starts right under the "NEW YORK" at the top of the page.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1886-07-12/ed-1/seq-2/

StrikeOutXXX

@Zoins I really know nothing about these besides what I found trying to find info electronically.

That old newspaper article says: "On the street corners, the newsboys have opened the sale of the bicentennial medals, official and unofficial".

All the published books about the history of the event only mention the "Official" medal by Lovett. Is it possible yours was technically an "Unofficial" one?

There is one book mentioned here I couldn't find electronically to check for references - this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Albanys-Bi-Centennial-Chronicle-Embracing-Illustrations/dp/0332878201

Maybe someone lives near Albany and gets really bored could look through the archives:
https://www.albanyinstitute.org/tl_files/pdfs/library/Albany Bicentennial Commission Records, 1871-1922.pdf

Zoins

@StrikeOutXXX said:
@Zoins I really know nothing about these besides what I found trying to find info electronically.

That old newspaper article says: "On the street corners, the newsboys have opened the sale of the bicentennial medals, official and unofficial".

All the published books about the history of the event only mention the "Official" medal by Lovett. Is it possible yours was technically an "Unofficial" one?

There is one book mentioned here I couldn't find electronically to check for references - this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Albanys-Bi-Centennial-Chronicle-Embracing-Illustrations/dp/0332878201

Maybe someone lives near Albany and gets really bored could look through the archives:
https://www.albanyinstitute.org/tl_files/pdfs/library/Albany Bicentennial Commission Records, 1871-1922.pdf

Online records are really all I have access to as well the vast majority of time. It's great see any mention of medals in contemporary articles. Agree it would be great to do some archive searches.