HUGE Thank you to jonathanb !! 1901 Pan American in gilt

DUIGUY · June 28, 2006 5:21AM

Another reason why I love this place , Four eyes are better then two !!

Thanks again jonathanb !!

This gilt example will go well with my silver example ;

Silver 1901 Pan American ;

hiyosilver · June 28, 2006 5:24AM

Beautiful coins Doug!

LanLord · June 28, 2006 5:27AM

Pretty cool, the gilt version looks slightly different, the plaque on the obverse at 6:00 seems to have different writing.

jonathanb · June 28, 2006 6:11AM

LanLord: Yup, you're exactly right. These are award medals presented at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo (get it?) New York. Unless one person happened to win two awards, the writing will be different for each one.

The silver version above was awarded to Faustino Lopez. I don't know who he was or what the award was for.

I had posted another gold medal back in March that was awarded to Henri Nestle, a company that still exists (Nestle's chocolate, etc). In that case I found confirmation at the University of Buffalo that a Gold Medal really was awarded to Henri Nestle at that exposition, specifically for "Nestle's food for infants". I thought it was neat to have that confirmation.

The medal at the top of this thread was awarded to The "Mobile" Company of America. That company is a really important name in early automobiles. They were doing two things of note in 1901. They were producing the Mobile Rapid Transit Wagonette, one of the first mass transit vehicles (see convenient eBay listing here. Perhaps more interesting (although the web sites I found are somewhat contradictory), it appears that The "Mobile" Company of America also was producing what later became known as the Stanley Steamer, a reallly really important early automobile. I wish I could have found direct confirmation of what they received this medal for, but I can't find anything on the web. It might be possible to track it down with some more legwork.

As a side note, this medal came out of the most recent Goldberg sale where they simply said "unknown if this was an earlier name for Mobil Oil". I wonder how much more interest they would have had if they had correctly identified the company and realized that this might be an important piece of early automobilia...

jonathan

Blackhawk · June 28, 2006 6:36AM

That looks like the "full horn" variety.

Merc · June 28, 2006 6:43AM

Is the gilt gold leaf over bronze? How is a gilt metal made?

RWB · June 28, 2006 7:04AM

This is why the sculptors preferred designing medals to coins. Also compare with medals from other early 20th century expositions esp. PPIE of 1915.

DUIGUY · June 28, 2006 7:21AM

THIS design would have looked good on the new $50 Buffs !!!!!

tmot99 · June 28, 2006 9:15AM

<< <i>THIS design would have looked good on the new $50 Buffs !!!!!

>>

They wouldn't exactly be $50 Buffalos then would they??

RWB · June 29, 2006 1:20AM

This is why the mint needs sculptors, not flat art graphic designers. The MacNeil 1901 design, with a bit of updating, would make an excellent international bullion token – and it could still be called a "Buffalo" (or maybe a "Bison").

If the mint artists would at least look back into the very rich heritage of American medallic sculpture, they would find a tremendous array of allegorical designs that are both visually appealing and adapted to a small format. But no one with the mint or CFA has the courage to lead and to demand the best.

Whatever we put on our coins and public medals should be the best possible representation of America, our ideals and our national traditions developed over 200 years. To do any less is to turn our backs on what so many paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect.

Our metallic coins and medals will last long after the CDs and archives have turned to dust. They will be the traces of civilization and national ideals that are unearthed by future archeologists, as we now unearth those of ancient civilizations.

HUGE Thank you to jonathanb !! 1901 Pan American in gilt

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