What is the definition of a So-Called Dollar?

291fifth

Size?
Must it commemorate a contemporary event?
Other factor?

keets

Thomas Elder was the first to popularize use of the term around 1910 and Richard Kenney was the first to make an attempt at some sort of organized standardization to medals which met the criteria which developed from that time until his brief pamphlet, issued around 1953. evidentally, the term originated at the 1876 Centennial of American Independence with the issue of the Dollar sized commemoration medals which were the celebration's official medal, those with an upright Liberty bearing a torch on the obverse. during the late 1890's and early part of the 20th Century, various medals tied to the Gold/Silver controversy which ruled the day came to the forefront. as a general rule, they set the standard since they were near dollar-sized, struck in precious metal and made political reference.

Farran Zerbe did some research and catalogued the Bryan Dollars in the 1920's and then, based on the Kenney research, Hibler-Kappen made a much more inclusive volume of Fair and Exposition medals in the 1960's which mimiced the earlier ones in size relative to a Dollar coin but not limited to political events. as things now stand it would seem we are on the cusp of the next generation of updates with perhaps no less than three undertakings to modernize the HK standard and include subsequent medals. it's an interesting field of study which combines all the elements that Numismatists claim to embrace yet few seem brave enough to actively collect. the past few years have been rather exciting for us brave souls who chase SC$'s and things give no hint of slowing. instead, the pace has quickened, the prices have rose on both ends of the equation and new or previously thought to be rare medals are found.

in short, the definition which has come to be the standard is laid out by Hibler-Kappen in the introduction to their seminal work first published in 1963. a So-Called Dollar is any medal of near dollar size of a commemorative or exposition and later, monetary nature. some restrictions: United States issue only, maximum and minimum sizes, no holed or looped issues unless originally made as such, no plastic or fiber issues unless also struck in metal, no special interest topics such as Colleges-purely presidential-athletics-coin clubs, etc(you get the picture).

lkrarecoins

Great question, 291, and a great response...Thanks for the schooling

flaminio

A shorter answer might be: "whatever is in the HK catalog".

One thing about published works is that they tend to define what is and isn't part of the "set". Some minor die variation will get no notice at all, but once it gets published in the "Red Book" now everyone's got to have one.

This new SC$ catalog coming out is going to go a long way to define the set of these exonumia for a generation.

keets

This new SC$ catalog coming out is going to go a long way to define the set of these exonumia for a generation.

possible, but not probable.....................

the new work you're referring to is most likely the one undertaken by a west coast "promoter" who seems more concerned with self-enrichment than he does in furthering the edification of hobbyists interested in the medals. as i told another forum member this morning, most of us in the hobby fall into three categories when it comes to coins and knowledge:

1. dealers who are in it for profit and withhold knowledge because of the edge it provides them over both collectors and other dealers.
2. collectors who share knowledge to further the hobby.
3. promoters who "share" knowledge only when it serves an agenda, generally for profit.

the current "work" out west is mainly a re-writing of the Hibler-Kappen book with new issues and most likely a new numbering scheme. some attempts have been made to gather information but more of an attempt appears to have been made to generate interest for the wholesale dumping of a massive collection. a better work is underway in the midwest which has copywrite permission to list the original book in PDF or other format online, updated to reflect pictures of issues and quite probably amended with newly discovered or previously omitted medals. it builds on the "shoulders of giants" and seems aimed at helping enlarge the collecting communities knowledge base about SC$'s, free dissemination if you will.

personally, i tend to lean towards what's being offered by the latter individual. it comes across as something done for unselfish reasons, though i could be totally wrong on all counts. i only have my personal impressions to trust. by comparison, consider Breen's Encyclopedia and it's many errors; an update of that seminal work would be better than a completely new encyclopedia based on it.

flaminio

<< <i>the new work you're referring to is most likely the one undertaken by a west coast "promoter" who seems more concerned with self-enrichment than he does in furthering the edification of hobbyists interested in the medals. >>

I'm referring to this one. I think that's a different work than the one you're thinking of -- the principles behind it seem sincere, and not so self-enrichment motivated (tho' I doubt they'd complain if that happened nonetheless ).

Zoins

I've been using John Raymond's long HK-based definition.

keets

Bob, the second effort "underway in the Midwest" that i referred to is the one you linked, and i can't agree with you more. i was aware of the progress but not of the thread, thanks for the link.

ScarsdaleCoin

getting rid of HK numbers would be a real bad thing.....

PS: how long have we been hearing about a new book??????

keets

only about 3-4 weeks for this effort and there's already something available. the other efforts, maybe 3-4 years and nothing...........................

tmot99

From what the west coaster tells me, he is a few years away from anything out of him.

There will be a new edition from me and Jonathan in 2007. I'm hoping for sooner rather than later. I think early to mid-2007 is reasonable and I'm still aiming for end of first quarter. This edition will have off-metal varieties added, maybe some new pieces, as well as some new information on some pieces. There are certainly many more medals that probably need to be rolled into this book, but that can't happen on a short term scale. We will be working to do another edition in the not-so-distant-future where we can mull over totally new medals, deal with questions on store cards that were issued at the fairs, etc. This will also entail a new numbering system as there are already a bunch of totally new medals that need a place to stay. Part 4 in the book doesn't really belong there. They should be incorporated into the rest of the book, and you will see that in the online version. I'll provide links soon, but they will just direct to the corresponding event.

The group working on the book, and there are others who are generating much more information than I could possibly provide, are in this for the benefit of the hobby. Yes, there will be some money made. Not by selling collections, but books. We are only looking at 2000 copies, so just calculate the math. Pricing hasn't been determined, but if I said $50 or $75 and the publisher gets the largest chunk of that, there's not much left over.