Anyone know about a 1920 Teddy Roosevelt medal by James E. Fraser?

Aethelred

This medal is uniface and measures 38mm in diameter. The obverse bears a bust of Roosevelt facing right and is inscribed "J E FRASER ­­19©20" to the left of the bust and "MDCCCLVIII - MCMIXI" to the right. I assume it is made of silver, but there are no markings on the reverse or edge.

Thanks for any help!

coinkat

I have never seen this before but TR died in 1919. The Roman Numerals on the bottom I think are 1919. The medal is probabaly some kind of memorial in connection with the death of TR.

Aethelred

<< <i>I have never seen this before but TR died in 1919. The Roman Numerals on the bottom I think are 1919. The medal is probabaly some kind of memorial in connection with the death of TR. >>



You are correct Coinkat, the Roman Numerals are 1858-1919, the years that TR lived. I assume it is a memorial medal, and of course James E. Fraser was the designer of the Buffalo Nickel and the famous statue "End of the Trail."

END OF THE TRAIL:

RGL

And, of course, Fraser and his wife, Laura Gardin Fraser, designed one of our most beautiful commems, the Oregon Trail. Don't you love their use of textured fields on the Oregon and the Type 1 Buff before Barber got his hands on it?

coinkat

I am not rying to create work for you Aethelred, but what does the other side look like?

Aethelred

The other side is blank.

coinkat

for some reason, that wasn't the answer I ws expecting... Is there a badge company name on the rim? Was this made by Whitehead & Hoag? Or perhaps Bastian Brothers?

Aethelred

Nothing to suggest who it might have been made by, no markings of any kind on the edge, not listed in Hake.

BNE

I have one of these, as well. The medal uses the obverse of a TR honor society piece designed by Fraser, but the reverse is blank. This is because, I understand, Remington rifles got the rights to use the Fraser obverse, which they struck up. The "medal," however, was intended to be installed on the stock of a gun, which is why it is uniface. Remington and TR had some sort of association as well, I believe.

My medal has a sort of pewter finish.

The same basic profile of TR was also used on a bronze memorial plaque printed in 1920, which bears the legend "Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport the world affords." I have one of these as well, and its a lovely piece for either TR collectors, or Fraser fans, and terrific for people who are both! Coin World recently did a short series on Fraser and TR's friendship: they were both big fans of the West and were similar in build and temperment. Fraser got a lot of mileage in his career from those sittings by TR.

I have often thought that the portrait would make a terrific obverse for a circulating coin, and the nickel would be so appropos, no? I think it would be the first time a single designer designed two different series in the same denomination.

Hope this helps.

Aethelred

BNE - Thanks for your reply!

Is it safe to assume that based on the above info there is little value to this item?