Rare Denver Mint medal
dcarr
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I collect exonumia related to the Denver Mint. I had seen one of these many years ago (before I collected Denver Mint exonumia). When this one walked in the door of the recent (October) Denver Coin Expo, I paid up for it to add to my collection. I liked that it came with a vintage Denver newspaper clipping. Even John Dean (author of "National Commemorative Medals of the United States Mint") hadn't seen one before. Reportedly only 207 issued. And those 207 were widely scattered to employees and not many have reached collectors' hands, apparently.
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Very cool.
--Severian the Lame
I used to own one and I lost it at one of the ANA shows in Chicago.
Ive been looking for one since.
Its also mentioned in the annual report of that year as well.
One thing that I thought was interesting about mine, and now yours, is how the dies were specially prepared with semi-proof-like surfaces, yet the planchets that they used were of poor quality and the planchet hits weren't fully erased with the strike.
Great medal and article! It's great when the Mint honors their employees!
Very interesting... What is the size of the metal?
President, Racine Numismatic Society 2013-2014; Variety Resource Dimes; See 6/8/12 CDN for my article on Winged Liberty Dimes; Ebay
Very cool. Gotta love those moments when somthing finds you.
38mm.
The mint really put a lot of effort into the design of that medal, didn't they?
Anyone know who the ES initials belong to?
Edgar Steever. He designed and sculpted many medals at the Mint.
Good to know. Just looked him up. Edgar Zell Steever IV was Chief Engraver at the U.S. Mint. He started his U.S. Mint career as a sculptor-engraver at the Philadelphia Mint under the supervision of Chief Engraver Frank Gasparro.
Note that the design with the Denver Mint building was paired with a Treasury Department Shield design and used to strike bronze medals in 34mm and 39mm. Those are both pretty common. Here is a fairly rare 39mm off-center strike:
A slightly scarcer one is the bronze 34mm building die paired with a Colorado "76" (Centennial) design.
And the 34mm "76" design was also paired with a "Colorado Land of Promise" die to strike bronze, gold-plated bronze, silver, and 100 gold pieces.
Love the off center Denver Mint token!
Super awesome achievement medal! Can't get better provenance than that considering the recipients name is labeled on box, and newspaper clipping describes event. I'm curious now if this was the only year such a medal was presented, or, if there's other such achievement medals? Nice addition!
Very nice Dan.... and that gold piece is amazing... Cheers, RickO
There are other Mint award medals such as various Mint police sharp shooting medals and recently the silver proof David Rittenhouse medal.
That is wonderful provenance, but many 19th century achievement and award medals had names engraved right on the medal. I always thought this was a nice touch and provenance that won't leave the medal.
Dan's Lesher pieces are similar with individual names stamped directly on them.