US Centennial commemorative medal Julian CM-11 in silver
jonathanb
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Julian CM-11 is practically "common" (as US Mint medals go) in bronze and white metal, and only slightly scarcer in gilt. The silver version is a true rarity, with only 11 struck (and two of those melted before they left the mint).
Unfortunately, this isn't one of the silver ones. The weight is right, but it fails the ring test. Bummer. Must be silver-plated white metal.
It's attractive, though...
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Comments
I agree it's very attractive. Congrats on a nicely toned specimen.
If it's not silver, why would the weight be correct? Wouldn't white metal be much lighter?
Without having a silver version to compare to, I assume the thicknesses differ.
On the other hand, white metal basically means "whatever crap was hanging around the melting pot" so I imagine the right proportions of tin/lead/whatever else could mimic the density of just about anything.
Looks nice.
Does the ring pitch match that of a white metal specimen ?
The ring lack-of-pitch matches. White metal doesn't ring. At least to my ears, it doesn't. It says, "thud". Or if you prefer, "tick!"
Silver and bronze give nice long-duration "TINNNNNGGGGG!" ring tests.
An XRF test could provide some useful information.
White metal is often mostly zinc.
I would LOVE for XRF tests to get cheap enough where they could be done as a matter of course. There are lots of cases where they would provide useful information (see this week's E-Sylum for another example where I'd love to have XRF tests).
Dave Emslie (Prosprector's Gold & Gems) often has a table at larger shows and he usually has his portable XRF gun.
Nice piece....are all the silver pieces accounted for? In the past (before I retired), I had acquaintances at company's that had XRF... and could get 'favors' from time to time....those machines are often underutilized...Cheers, RickO
Gold is rare. This is not mine , just had to share
- Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 BC
When the last one was sold by Stacks in 2008, the listing said there were three known. In addition to that specimen, there was one sold in the Dreyfuss sale that was apparently a different example, although the sale price was so low (even for 1986) that I wonder if the bidders looked at it and decided that it was also a plated example.
The ANS has two listings (1) (2) than don't explicitly say "silver" but do say "only 10 struck", so they might have two there.
The lack of a proper ring is not always a sure test. One occasionally sees
reports in the mint records of this era that such and such a coin is genuine
even though the proper silver or gold ring is missing. I would suggest a
specific gravity test as the best indicator.
Regardless of the metal, it's a beautiful example!
Michael Kittle Rare Coins --- 1908-S Indian Head Cent Grading Set --- No. 1 1909 Mint Set --- Kittlecoins on Facebook --- Long Beach Table 448
TTT.
Jonathan, did you ever figure anything out about this medal's composition??
@keets no info, sorry. I've seen several other examples (looks silver but isn't), though.
Great piece either way.