A fabulous St. Gaudens/Barber collaboration from the 1892-93 Columbian Exposition.

keets

Here's the auction link if you want to hurry over and bid, obv/rev pictures are below. The auction item is too large to have been included in the Hibler-Kappen book, but it's smaller cousin is listed as HK-223 and was struck in copper. Evidentally Mssrs. Saint Gaudens and Barber each won a $2500 prize in a design competition and then the SC$'s were struck by the Philadelphia Mint. For me, it's just another example of how much more effective high relief can be in depicting the sculptors idea. I believe Barbar also engraved the dies for the medals.

Al H.

WWW

Wow! That's a very cool looking medal. What does something like that normally sell for?

keets

hey W

HK-223 is listed as rare---51-250 known---and priced at $30, but of course that was way back in 1962 and i'm assuming for a BU example. as in all of Numismatics, prices aren't generally determined by rarity but instead by collector demand. there isn't currently much of a demand for stuff like this even though these medals have everything going for them from a collecting standpoint: beauty, actual rarity, history. i find many in searches which have quite obviously been handed down from prior generations and the sellers often have no idea what they have. but hey, that's a topic for one of those "ethics threads" where a member or two would say i should inform the seller of what they have!!! i think not.

this one is being sold by someone who knows what he has and probably expects some windfall. it's a bit too large for me to chase. were it the smaller SC$ i'd be on it like spots on dice!!

al h.