PCGS now slabs Heraldic Art So-Called Half Dollars!

Given there are only 8 medals struck in gold, it's a pretty small set so I can see a few people wanting complete collections. Here's the list. There's good info on heraldicartmedallions.com but unfortunately that site seems offline now. I'm guessing the Olde Northfield Historical Society (http://www.hson.info/) piece may be the hardest to come by. It makes sense that the Alaksa piece has sold for more than the others given the lower mintage.

• 1959 Alaska Statehood - 24 in 18k
• 1959 Hawaii Statehood - 36 in 18k
• 1959 St. Lawrence Seaway - 48
• 1960 Boy Scouts 50th Anniversary
• 1960 Pioneer Inventions
• 1960 Pony Express Centennial - 42 in 22k
• 1961 Kansas Statehood Centennial
• American Bicentennial Olde Northfield Historical Society

Given these are nearly 60 years old now, I bet a fair number of them have been melted which makes the collecting more interesting.

I have yet to come across a American Bicentennial but those may be held by HSON members.

@coinkid855 said:
I own all the original (cancelled) dies for this series.

Very cool! It's amazing you have an entire set. How did you get them?

Do you know how many sets there are? I know there are others because I have a pair

Here is a great thread on Heraldic Art medals with photos of many silver specimens.

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/heraldic-art-medals.205210/

On Dec 18, 2012, LostDutchman mentioned a number of the dies were owned by Don "D.A." Smith who purchased them from the Ron McNamara estate. I wonder how many dies Don owns (or owned)?

I am good friends with Don Smith who runs http://www.heraldicartmedallions.com/about.html

I recently bought 50 pieces from Mr. Smith out of his extras. I also had the pleasure of photographing his dies and die trials he acquired from the McNamara estate. Here are a few I photographed today.

Regarding the extra die pairs, it would be interesting to know how many there were and to compare them. There are two cases for additional die pairs I can think of:

Striking many issues. Some of the silver strikes had mintages to 6,000 so it may have been necessary to have multiple dies. This is similar to Dan's multiple dies or the ones issued for the 1996 Olympics.

Separate dies for gold issues. One of the Hawaii die pairs was identified as specifically used for only striking gold specimens.

Here are photos of my one pair. I picked this one because I am an Eagle Scout and it brings back many memories of scouting. It would be great to get more

@Type2 said:
I have a small part set I think they are cool.

Wonderful medals and display! Thanks for posting them!

@RogerB said:
Using those criteria, every small medal is a "so-called half dollar" which makes no sense at all. Using a meaningless, undefined term only confuses people and promotes misunderstanding (and facilitates sales hyping).

Going from these to “every small medal” is a pretty big stretch. Do you see PCGS (or NGC or anyone) doing this?

Where do all of the Franklin Mint medals fit? How about the Society of Medallists, Presidential Art Medals, Esso Gas, Chuck-E-Cheese?

I’m not the one classifying these but you can ask in the PCGS Q&A forum. I will say that these were intended to replace the Classic Commem Half Dollar series so there is that difference from the ones you list.

Adding a term associated only with a specific cataloged group of dollar-size medals, to a nebulous assemblage is absurd - and the instigator is doing a disservice to all.

Who are you implying is the instigator here? PCGS?

@RogerB said:
A meaningless designation without definition creates confusion and misunderstanding. It does not matter who or what originated it. Hopefully, this kind of misdirection will vanish very soon.

As mentioned, these were intended as a replacement for the Classic Commem Half Dollars after that series was stopped. You may consider this meaningless but others may have a different opinion.

Both PCGS and NGC call these So-Called Half Dollars but perhaps they could be convinced otherwise. Give it a shot if you like.

@keets said:
Roger, I have had this debate with Zoins for what seems like a few years now, it is an exercise in futility. the downside is as you stated, confusion for collectors who aren't able to sort things out.

If your expectation is for the TPGs to change their classification, then a discussion here may be futile since I don't think they generally create their policies based on forum discussions. It may help more if you both discuss with the TPGs directly.

As for me, you're right in that I really don't see an issue right now, for SCDs or SCHDs. More below on this.

Going from these to “every small medal” is a pretty big stretch. Do you see PCGS (or NGC or anyone) doing this?
this is precisely what NGC will do and has done for well over 10-15 years. you can pretty much send anything to them with a vague description and they will encapsulate it. do we need PCGS to participate in that type of thing???

When I search for NGC So-Called Half Dollar on the bay, I only see 33 items for "ngc so-called half dollar" and 30 items for "ngc sc50c". That's a very limited number and, to me, doesn't rise to the "every small medal" issue mentioned by @RogerB. You mentioned something similar about every medal being called a So-Called Dollar, but I mentioned that I also don't really see this happening. I do, however, see the SCD term being applied to event medals and tokens which I think is okay.

As for general encapsulation, that's different then calling something a "SC50C" or "SC$", but I'm also ok with encapsulating items without the "SC50C" and "SC$" classification.

@keets said:
no one is trying to get the TPG's to do anything, that is what you wrongly inferred.

I actually didn't infer that for you. I was asking for clarification which is the reason for the "if". Thanks for the clarification.

That being said, Roger did write "Hopefully, this [...] will vanish very soon" which I took to mean that he was interested in having the TPGs change their behavior.

NGC apparently agrees with you and PCGS has now decided they do, too. congratulations on your persistence.

I'm just happy they are slabbing more pieces.