Another rare medal, probably by Dana Bickford who gave us the multi-denominational Eagle pattern in
keets
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First, the medal and the Bickford Dollar it closely resembles:
Now, a little history and some talk about the new medal.
Dana Bickford was a businessman who invented the ??automatic knitting machine?? and while he was traveling throughout Europe to market his idea he encountered problems with money exchange and the use of varying currency. He came upon the idea of international coinage which would be acceptable at the rate of exchange which was on the coin itself. His idea would have saved the U.S. approximately half-a-million dollars per year at the time in recoinage and money transfers from non-U.S. currency entering the country. Evidentally the director of the U.S. Mint, Dr. Henry R. Linderman, thought enough of the idea that in 1874 the Mint struck patterns of $10 in Gold, copper, nickel and aluminum. The $10 Gold is the plate coin from the Judd book on patterns. None were bi-metallic and the idea faded for various reasons, one being the silver lobby which gave us the much beloved Morgan.
The Bickford Dollars have three basic designs that were issued in 1897. All were bi-metallic, with those which were struck in numbers large enough to be considered collectible, being aluminum with a brass or bronze center plug. The diameter is given by Hibler/Kappen at "size 18" which is 31 mm. That seems to be close to what this new medal is in both size, composition and date. Also, Bickford was politically active and had dedicated one of his "Dollars" to U.S. Grant by using Grant's tomb as one side's main design element with the President pictured on the center plug.
Has anyone ever seen any other bi-metallic medals which fit this description?? Ever owned or seen one of the 1874 Patterns?? Ever seen an automatic knitting machine in a museum??
Coins, ya gotta love 'em!!!
Al H.
Now, a little history and some talk about the new medal.
Dana Bickford was a businessman who invented the ??automatic knitting machine?? and while he was traveling throughout Europe to market his idea he encountered problems with money exchange and the use of varying currency. He came upon the idea of international coinage which would be acceptable at the rate of exchange which was on the coin itself. His idea would have saved the U.S. approximately half-a-million dollars per year at the time in recoinage and money transfers from non-U.S. currency entering the country. Evidentally the director of the U.S. Mint, Dr. Henry R. Linderman, thought enough of the idea that in 1874 the Mint struck patterns of $10 in Gold, copper, nickel and aluminum. The $10 Gold is the plate coin from the Judd book on patterns. None were bi-metallic and the idea faded for various reasons, one being the silver lobby which gave us the much beloved Morgan.
The Bickford Dollars have three basic designs that were issued in 1897. All were bi-metallic, with those which were struck in numbers large enough to be considered collectible, being aluminum with a brass or bronze center plug. The diameter is given by Hibler/Kappen at "size 18" which is 31 mm. That seems to be close to what this new medal is in both size, composition and date. Also, Bickford was politically active and had dedicated one of his "Dollars" to U.S. Grant by using Grant's tomb as one side's main design element with the President pictured on the center plug.
Has anyone ever seen any other bi-metallic medals which fit this description?? Ever owned or seen one of the 1874 Patterns?? Ever seen an automatic knitting machine in a museum??
Coins, ya gotta love 'em!!!Al H.
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Comments
Somehow you manage to zero in on the coolest stuff. A nice score from a terrific eBay seller. I've purchased from Lib many times. He's right up here in my neck of the woods.
Cheers,
Bob
My vague understanding was that a multiple-denomination coin wouldn't have worked well because the exchange rates meant that it would take a very odd number of one currency to translate into a round number of another currency. I thought that the mint realized this and weren't too eager to strike patterns but politicial pressure forced them to do so. But I hasten to add that my (truly) vague understanding might be wrong. Regardless, I have never before seen the Bickford medal you illustrated. That is a very neat piece of history!
Mark
Liberty is pretty good for Commems and Exonumia. they're one of my favorites also, a favorite to the point that i can be looking at eBay listings on the main search page and recognize that it's them. if i could only get to that degree of recognition with Ernie's listings i could save a few minutes in search mode every night!!!
as far as the exchange difficulties, Mark, they're still there, right?? if you've evr traveled overseas from country to country you know that you need to keep tabs of what's what and transactions/exchanges are done in banks. a major inconvenience is ending up with a whole slew of various currency and i think Mr. Bickford understood that. with his proposition there would be exchange rates known to evryone---they were on the coin!!!---and we'd all have been using the same thing.
i figure the thing that stopped his idealism is the notion that with an international currency each country would pretty much lose their autonomy and be swallowed up into the whole. her we are 100++ years later and his idea has been employed by the European Union and is giving the U.S economy trouble because of the strength the union has given to the individual members----the whole is greater than the sum of the individual members.
in the end, the prospect of change probably proved too daunting to the politicians of the day, as it still does. the fly in the ointment is that change is always necessary and ultimately equates to progress, always................
al h.