Rare John F. Kennedy Medals
DrDarryl
Posts: 616 ✭✭✭✭✭
Edward C. Rochette's original research indicated that only 300 were struck by the Philadelphia Mint.
Gasparro's name can be seen on the obverse and his FG initials on the reverse.
I have five in my collection.
One (loose) has a pedigree from the Robert L. White Collection.
Another one (loose) has a pedigree from the collection of Mary Gallagher (former personal secretary to Mrs. Kennedy).
One of the sealed medals has a provenance letter (unbroken chain of ownership). I insisted that owner's representative provide it. Resulting in a specimen with "three degrees of separation" from President Kennedy. Note the number of "-to-".
President Kennedy -to- original recipient -to- family member -to- DrDarryl
13
Comments
Very nice front facing obv. of JFK. Thanks. Peace Roy
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Nice collection of medals... Were they like the inaugural coins now made? Or more like a presidential challenge coin? Cheers, RickO
Nice medals. Why not provide a brief explanation of what Appreciation Medals are?
Very late reply: The appreciation medals discussed in this thread are actually "special medals for U.S. Government agencies" (aka special Government medals or simply "sGm"). sGms do not required an enacted federal law (stipulates design element(s), metal type(s), mintage, etc.) in order for the U.S. Mint to design and manufacture. The U.S. Government agency simply confers with the U.S. Mint on the design, metal, size, mintage, ready by date, etc.. Once the final details of the sGm are in place, the U.S. Mint begins to strike the "order on demand medals".
In the case of the John F. Kennedy appreciation medals, the White House (WH) (yes, its a U.S. Government agency) made a medal order request, the WH approved the design & manufacturing details, and the U.S. Mint struck and delivered the medals to the WH.
The following is a research technique called cluster analysis. As one can see, the U.S. Mint manufactured products "cluster" into three groupings. From these three groupings a "manufacturing triad of the U.S. Mint" is formed. Two of the three manufacturing functions require an enacted federal law to authorize the design/manufacture.
The purpose of these appreciation medals is to provide the means for the POTUS to show his gratitude to individuals in real time (imagine the length of time to write & receive a presidential thank you letter).
Today, I consider these medals to be presidential numismatic artifacts.
Amazing, informative, and really interesting. Thank you!
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
Here is a specimen with provenance (documented full chain of ownership) from President Kennedy to the current owner (and can be transferred to a future owner). The original recipient name is redacted for privacy of the living widow. The name of the original recipient can be searched online and it will indicate a Department of State employee, assigned to Dublin, Ireland.
No, this something different, and it sounds like it was more personal to JFK. According to the experts, the "official" presidential inaugural medals date from 1889,
Here is the official 1961 JFK inaugural medal.
Bronze
Silver
The design was by Paul Manship who also designed the 1933 FDR medal.
Another specimen with provenance: The Mary Gallagher Specimen (personal secretary of Mrs. Kennedy).
Very nice appreciation medals and were designed very well in my opinion. I own two of them. I bought them from an avid Kennedy collector. He bought them along with a very large rare collection of Kennedy medals. Included in my two appreciation medals is one with a blank reverse. The sculpture of JFK is not on the medal. I believe from my research that this medal with a blank side was given to a museum. How it ended up in a collectors hands is not known. There is no other documentation of a one sided appreciation medal. In my opinion, I do believe, because of the "rarest Kennedy medals " in that collection, it possibly came from the personal collection of someone like Mayhew , Edward Rochette or Gerald Steinberg. Though Mayhew or Rochette did not mention it in their writings.
Many of the medals from that collection have not been seen in auctions or in other collections.
Beautiful Specimens.
Talking about High Relief!
Thanks for sharing.
"Jesus died for you and for me, Thank you,Jesus"!!!
--- If it should happen I die and leave this world and you want to remember me. Please only remember my opening Sig Line.I want to correct my statement- The writings of the one sided appreciation medal in Rochette and Mayhew was that it was given to the museum. Mayhew and Rochette mention it had been struck and is referred to as "unique". I do not remember if the William Rice book mentioned the one sided medal?
I normally use original source references for my research. Medallic Portraits of John F. Kennedy, 1966, was written by Edward C. Rochette, and I originally saw this book as a secondary source reference (information composed by another person). However, three individuals with U.S. Mint ties were part the medal's development contributed to this book. The acknowledgement page provided gratitude to Miss Eva Adams (Director of the Mint), Gilroy Roberts (former 9th Chief Engraver US Mint), and Frank Gasparro (was the current and 10th Chief Engraver US Mint at the time of the book's printing). Since my search with the National Archives was futile, I use this book as a substitute original source.
K-62-1a listing does not mention how many of these uniface trial strikes were made. It only makes reference that one is on display at the Smithsonian Institution. It is highly likely other uniface trial strikes (reverse only and obverse only) were made to confirm the designs. One has to remember both designs were the work of Frank Gasparro.
How is this documented in your research? Do you have a letter to you signed by Mary Gallagher that mentions this item?
You highlight the importance of provenance often and since you indicate you are the recipient of this, I was wondering how you document this in your work when working with people like Mary.
That’s a limited run!
Did Rochette list and indicate the rarity for this uniface specimen?
On last thing. These are personal medals belonging to President Kennedy. Struck exclusively for President Kennedy's use as the sitting 35th POTUS. The text on the reverse "WITH APPRECIATION" and incuse facsimile signature reenforces the fact that this medal belonged to number 35.
POTUS Numismatic Artifact (PNA). A few slides taken from my 2022 NMS Denver money talks presentation (all rights reserved).
My guidelines to be included as a PNA. There are currently 9 Classes of PNAs (Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon).
special Government medal (sGm), No enacted US law that authorize the US Mint to manufacture (size, metal, mintage, design). Manufacture authorized by the Director of the Mint under the US Mint manufacturing triad. Frank Gasparro's biography that was submitted by Miss Eva Adams during Frank's confirmation hearing for the position of 10th Chief Engraver.
How many US Mint medals (or coins) do you know of that has both provenance AND pedigree documented?
Who's signature is on this? Is it Nancy's?
This one is pretty cool as it comes with a hand signed card addressed to the recipient, Steve Martini, the White House barber.
Did you win this one?
https://goldinauctions.com/John_F__Kennedy_Appreciation_Medal_in_Lucite_Prese-LOT57622.aspx
It seems like you have a very specific focus on a subset of PNA.
Specifically, "A coin or medal linked to a sitting POTUS" by itself doesn't indicate it needs to be manufactured by the U.S. Mint so is it appropriate to say that the term "PNA" covers "A coin or medal" struck by any organization but your research is on coins and medals struck by the U.S. Mint?
Just like SCDs, guidelines had to be set for this thematic style collecting. It's a quality control measure to limit specimens to US Mint products. Who else can serious numismatists trust but the good old US Mint. And the means for manufacturing authority is known. https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/998756/how-i-created-the-manufacturing-triad-of-the-u-s-mint-version-3-0?msclkid=24d1b6b3b58d11ecb220c9bf4cb9c5c8
For PNA medals the key trait is traceability from the US Mint-to-POTUS. Shown below are "origin" documents that link specific PNA medals to a sitting POTUS. These are hard evidence of the POTUS connection.
Very educational.
Beautiful medals!
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I think a big difference is that the term "So-Called Dollar" is completely made up. "So-Called" has no other meaning.
On the other hand, "POTUS", "Numismatic" and "Artifact" all have meaning.
The other thing is that today, it seems like the POTUS issues challenge coins that are not struck by the U.S. Mint so leaving these out ignores current POTUS practices. This 2017 article indicates the challenge coin practice has been going on for 2 decades:
Ref: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/its-very-gold-the-presidential-coin-undergoes-a-trumpian-makeover/2017/12/22/23c8b11e-e5bb-11e7-ab50-621fe0588340_story.html
Here are records for recent POTUS hand delivering their challenge coin to people.
I think adding the U.S. Mint qualifier may be okay for your sphere of research, but the general "PNA" term must include current POTUS practices, which include challenge coins, among other things.
Very interesting knowing about the special way that a medal can be made without legislative approval. Is this mechanism no longer in effect? Peace Roy
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There is another qualifier identified in the MS power point slide "*Limited to the current phase of my research".
This is one that was not included with this qualifier:
https://ha.com/information/eric-newman-1792-coin.s
And another:
https://kansascityfed.org/moneymuseum/harry-s-truman-coin-collection/?msclkid=6cd3425cbe4611ec86ae76a382924699
And another:
https://coins-of-panama.com/canalmedals/cm10-6.html?Size=LargeNOen
I forgot about the Eisenhower collection in the Smithsonian.
https://storage.googleapis.com/wzukusers/user-25104114/documents/5b49f5d125403B9UW5Nh/Dwight%20D.%20Eisenhower%20the%20Numismatist-Gomez.pdf
There are 189 pieces in this collection (I have the complete inventory). I did not share this fact as the not mentioned qualifier "POTUS numismatic award/Recipient gift" was assumed with all the specimens that was shared at the 2022 NMS.