A question about engraving to follow TomB.
Maywood
Posts: 2,754 ✭✭✭✭✭
Last week @TomB had posted an image of a gold coin with some very worn engraving for the forum membership to decipher. As it happens, I had been trying to figure out something similar on a medal. The subject is pictured below. If it's opened in a new tab it should be much larger, or you can follow the link to Heritage where it can be expanded.
The medal itself looks AU/BU details which is way too much detail for the engraving to have been "worn away" to get to where it is now. More than likely it was tooled and smoothed and it looks like there are remnants of a design enclosing the lettering. To the lettering --- it looks to me like it was engraved "Engineer" over-top of a name. I've looked around and found some good details a few weeks back but can't find it now. Tonight I located a different reference which gave me the names of several individuals, the only name that is remotely close is John Vanderbilt.
Can anyone offer some help??
Maywood
Comments
Tough to tell. It'll be interesting to see if anyone has a speculation.
peacockcoins
I am seeing "Engineer" and first name "John".
It looks like the inscription was deliberately removed.
I speculate it was given to an engineer involved with the project. I am guessing more research on the project might elucidate major players involved.
https://asce.org/communities/institutes-and-technical-groups/environmental-and-water-resources-institute/news/brooklyn-waterworks
Hey! A shout-out!
That is one cool medal and I agree that the engraving was intentionally removed. There is quite a bit of smoothing and scraping away at the adjacent surfaces to hide the original work. My guess is that the two letters I have circled in black are both "n" given how similar they are to the "n" letters previously engraved.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
BTW, what a tragedy that someone tried to remove the inscription. They tried to erase it's history and compromised it's artistry at the same time.
Stack's and Heritage list four unique HK-589c medals being sold, there is the 2nd Edition listed medal and I found another 1-2 in searches. Hibler-Kappen call this an R7. Due to the issue's rarity I feel with the engraving intact the medal would have been encapsulated with a grade by both PCGS and NGC.
I also located an image of another engraved medal with everything still intact and legible reading Alderman John Stanbury. I'm wondering if someone could do an overlay to maybe give an idea of what some of the letters might be??
TTT in case someone might have missed it who can help, anyone who can do an "overlay" of one medal onto the other to line up the lettering for some help. Thanks.
I suspect that an overlay would be of limited use since it's hand engraved.
Your best bet is @davewesen 's suggestion:
I located the name of the Chief Engineer on the project, James Pugh Kirkwood. I'm hoping to find the report from a few weeks back that had the names of about 4-5 engineers that worked on the project.
I've spent the last few hours researching this Chief Engineer and could only come up with:
Could it be John B. Jervis? He was an engineer who wrote a report on the Brooklyn Water Works Project... waterworkshistory.us/bio/Jervis/index.htm
I had seen that name somewhere but don't know where, it seems that it might fit into the remnants of the lettering.
The name and biography seem to fit.
Don't know about the name, but I've always loved this design. Pretty rare in silver!
I can agree it's "Engineer John------."
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
It looks like someone went out of their way to efface the engraving on the medal. There is obviously intentional rubbing in that area.