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1939 400th Anniversary of Printing Press Mexican Medal help!?
coinkid855
Posts: 5,012 ✭✭✭
I bought this yesterday at the Colorado Springs Coin show, and literally know nothing about it....Could anyone enlighten me on what exactly it might be?
Thanks!
-Paul
Thanks!
-Paul
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linky
House of the First Print Shop in the Americas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
House of the First Print Shop in the Americas
The House of the First Print Shop in the Americas (Spanish: Casa de la Primera Imprenta de América) at the corner of Moneda and Licenciado Primo Verdad streets in Mexico City was the home of the first printing press/print shop in the New World. The house was originally constructed by Gerónimo de Aguilar in 1524 and is located on the outer edge of what was the sacred precinct of the Templo Mayor prior to the Conquest.
Patio area of the house
After receiving permission from Spanish king Carlos V, Mexico City archbishop, Juan de Zumarraga had a printing press brought from Europe in 1539. The press was set up in this house, then called the “Casa de las Campanas” (House of the Bells) by the Seville-based publisher Juan Cromberger with Italian printer Juan Pablos who worked for living expenses for ten years.[4] They began printing viceregal- and Church-related documents. One of these documents was a catechism entitled “The Brief and Most Concise Christian Doctrine in the Mexican Language” written by the archbishop himself.
After its stint as a print shop, the house changed hands numerous times and used for a number of purposes.[1] In the 17th century, it belonged to the Monastery of Santa Teresa de la Orden de las Carmelas Reformadas and later, in the 18th century it belonged to the Royal Military Order of Nuestra Señora de la Merced Redención de Cautivos de la Ciudad de México. In 1847, U.S. troops occupied the house, destroying the archives that were within. The house was then owned by a number of civilians, including one who used the building to store furniture. In the 20th century, the building was mostly used for offices, including being the home to a paper and printing services operation called the “Imprenta y Papelería Militar "Marte"” The house continued to change hands until 1989, when the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) bought the house with the intention of restoring it.
UAM worked with the Historic Center Restoration Program, working with the Instituto Nacional de Antropología. About 82 cm below the surface of the ground floor the stone head of a serpent from Aztec times was discovered. It is possible that this head was visible to the occupants of the building in the 16th and 17th centuries.[2]
Today, the house serves as the Continuing Education Center for UAM with various exhibition rooms, a bookstore and facilities for conferences and courses.[1] In 2008, the Book Museum opened here, with some of the oldest books in Mexico on display.
This is a neat medal, not rare, but nice looking. It is cataloged in Grove (volume 2) in the Events section as 508a. There were 1000 minted in silver at the Casa de Moneda de Mexico. There were also 4 examples minted in gold (Grove 508) and 3000 in bronze (Grove 508b). Funny, I have never seen a bronze piece but have seen quite a few in silver.
STLNATS,
Thanks for the great info! I will have to visit this place on my next trip to Mexico City. Sounds like an interesting place for a book lover.
Only 4 in gold? What do the gold ones go for?
<< <i>Nice looking medal.
Only 4 in gold? What do the gold ones go for? >>
I've never seen a gold one either, but I would expect it to sell for 2x-4x the bullion value of the medal, depending on condition. The catalog doesn't mention the weight of the gold version, so it would need to be weighed first.
Pruebas, any idea on what it might be worth? I bought it for $32 because I thought it was pretty.
-Paul
<< <i>Pruebas, any idea on what it might be worth? I bought it for $32 because I thought it was pretty.
These trade close to melt (maybe +10%), which is about what you bought yours for.
-Paul
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