show us a Presidential Inauguration Medal
KollectorKing
Posts: 4,820 ✭✭✭✭✭
KollectorKing
Posts: 4,820 ✭✭✭✭✭
KollectorKing
Posts: 4,820 ✭✭✭✭✭
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Which one would like to see? I'm on an iPad and can't post pictures, but I have a lot of pieces up to Reagan.
hmmmmm let's go Republican... Reagan
Multi-struck with rotation between strikes. I'm not sure if these were struck just twice or possibly more in order to bring up the design.
^^^ TRUMAN'S is one of my favorite designs.....if not my favorite
https://imdb.com/name/nm1835107/
Here are a few of my favorite RARE and not so rare Inaugural Medals from my collection.
https://imdb.com/name/nm1835107/
Some really nice medals Bodin.... and that Truman medal is very nice... I really like the reverse... Cheers, RickO
Can't wait for BillJones to start posting. It's going to be really cool.
This one is modern but I like it.
You have a VERY impressive collection Bodin!
Here is the 1985 Reagan medal. It gave some nice billing to George H. W. Bush, perhaps to boost his stock for 1988. This has often been done on the modern medals, although not always.
The reverse of the Truman medal has one very interesting design feature. In the lower right are a number of shadow figures that represent the average man. Truman had the image of the average man who rose from obscurity, although the achievements of his presidency made him much more than that.
The "average man and woman" also got him elected in 1948. That year all of the polls and pundits said he HAD to lose. Many of the pundits, even within the Democratic Party, held Truman in low regard; he was "that little man" The Democrats also held the presidency for 16 years, and change was in the wind.
Making it much worse for Truman, the Democrats had split into three factions for the 1948 election. Former vice president, Henry Wallace, who billed himself as FDR's heir apparent, ran from the left. Southern segregationist, Strom Thurmond, who had stormed out of the Democratic National Convention, was on the right. Thurmond cost Truman "the solid south" and Wallace probably cost him New York State, with its huge number of electoral votes, yet Truman won.
Why? Because the common people were with him. They showed up in enthusiastic droves to his rallies, and he ran a tireless and vigorous campaign.
I hope I don't upset too many people, but the same sort of thing happened for Donald Trump in 2016. As it was for Dewey in 1948, Hillary Clinton's supporters, and perhaps the candidate herself, were bit too overconfident going into the election.
I have more inaugural medals if folks would like to see them. The series did start officially until 1888 with Benjamin Harrison, but as Bodin as pointed out there were many "unofficial" pieces in the 19th century.
How about the 100th anniversary of an Inauguration?