Anyone collect presidential inaugural medals? Interesting info on the Roosevelt medal in the Burdet

Longacre

Does anyone collect presidential inaugural medals? These seem to be very interesting, and have a great tie into US history. I was reading the Burdette Renaissance book, and he includes several pages on the Roosevelt inaugural medal and Saint Gaudens' involvement. In one footnote, the author indicates that the complete story of the 1905 inaugural medal would occupy more space than is available in the entire Renaissance book, so he only provides a summary of the information. Also, he indicates that only 122 medals were produced (2 in gold and 120 in bronze). A footnote indicates that "the limited number produced was intentional", and Roosevelt wanted one medal for each member of the inaugural medal committte, plus 35 for cabinet members and friends. It goes on to state that Saint Gaudens himself only received a medal after the President specifically approved of it.

Do these sorts of medals come up for auction regularly? How large is the collecting base? Are the medals generally scarce, or does it just depend?

jonathanb

One sold last December for $25,000.

Coinosaurus

And probably worth more now w/the Burdette research!

RWB

For those interested in presidential inaugural medals, the 1905 Roosevelt private Inaugural medal is discussed on pp.55-62 of Neil MacNeil's book "The President's Medal 1789-1977."

Should anyone reading this post want to "write the book" on these medals, there are three principle sources of original documents: 1) Theodore Roosevelt papers in Library of Congress, 2) Saint-Gaudens papers in Dartmouth College Library Rauner Special Collections, 3) and Adolph Alexander Weinman papers in Smithsonian Archives of American Art. (These include more than 100 letters about the medal.) I do not know what happened to, and was not able to locate, the papers of Gen. John M. Wilson (Chairman of the Committee) or those of the Committee itself. The summary information in "RAC 1905-08" is based on the above three and has minor differences from MacNeil's research.

A very interesting exhibit linking Roosevelt and Saint-Gaudens could be built around the 1894 Columbian medal, 1905 Inaugural medal and the 1907 gold coins. The only “hard-to-find” item is the 1905, but good color photos could work nearly as well.

DaveG

Roger,

What's your view of Francis Pessolano-Filos' book on Presidential Medals (Medals of the Presidents, Secretaries of the Treasury and Directors of the Mint)?

I haven't seen it myself, but I have briefly flipped through his book on Assay Commission medals.

RYK

Roger rocks™. Longacre, thanks for luring him to the forum. I am looking forward to getting his books, but I am admittedly WAY behind on my reading with little hope of catching up anytime soon.

291fifth

Inaugural medals were quite popular about 20-25 years ago (I was collecting them at that time.) I sold my collection in 1988. My gut feeling is that their popularity has declined since the 1980's. I really don't hear much about them anymore.

coinkat

They are collectible and there is an organization known as APIC (American Political Items Collectors) and membership is... well I don't know... but they likely have a website. Keep in mind this is for campaign buttons, posters etc as well as inaugural items.

RWB

DaveG,
I've paged through the Assay Commission book and it's a keeper. I have not seen the other.

In Theodore Roosevelt's time, medals were the primary focus of American numismatics. Coins were just so much circulating metal issued by the millions. Art medals were made to honor and commemorate special events and were produced by the hundreds or dozens. Coins could be collected by "anyone" but medals were for the true "numismatologist." For the artists, the commission fee for a medal was often greater than for a coin, and with the extra money went fewer restrictions on creativity. For example, compare Robert Aitken's 1915 PPIE $50 commemorative design with that of the souvenir medal. Artistically, the medal is a much closer to the theme of the Pan-Pac exposition and the opening of the Panama Canal. I suspect, but cannot prove as yet, that Barber's 50-cent PPIE commemorative obverse was inspired by Aitken's medal. (The medal was produced and struck at the Philadelphian mint, with copies also struck at the exposition.) John Flanagan's award medal is also clearer in its purpose than the coins. (Although Flanagan had to accept $600 less than promised due to the congressional legislation -- but that story will be in the 3rd RAC book.)

Longacre

Now let's get back to discussions of hijacked pics on Ebay and the price of gold bullion.

Coinosaurus

<< <i>DaveG,
I've paged through the Assay Commission book and it's a keeper. I have not seen the other.
>>



I was looking at that book too - for one of the years I noticed he found something not in the mint archives files (which I had just recently looked at myself), so I'm guessing he was doing some nice detective work outside the usual sources.