President Bush to Present Nation’s Highest Civilian Honor to Cardiovascular Medicine Pioneer

WASHINGTON - The United States Capitol Rotunda will be the backdrop on April 23 when President George W. Bush presents the Congressional Gold Medal to heart surgeon Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.

Public Law 110-95, approved by President Bush on October 16, 2007, authorized the United States Mint to strike a gold medal to honor Dr. DeBakey for his many outstanding contributions to the Nation. Each Congressional Gold Medal is individually designed to reflect the accomplishments of the recipient. The public law also authorizes the United States Mint to produce and sell bronze reproductions of the medal.

Engraved on the medal’s obverse is an image of Dr. DeBakey in full hospital scrubs, with a surgery in progress in the background. Inscriptions on the obverse are “Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.,” “Act of Congress” and “2007.”

The medal’s reverse design depicts a human heart placed prominently over a globe representing the universal influence of Dr. DeBakey’s teachings on cardiovascular procedures. A ribbon encircling the heart bears the following quote by Dr. DeBakey: “The pursuit of excellence has been my objective in life.”

United States Mint Sculptor-Engraver Don Everhart designed both the obverse and reverse of the Michael DeBakey Congressional Gold Medal.

Three-inch bronze reproductions of the Michael DeBakey Congressional Gold Medal, priced at $38, will be available for purchase beginning noon (ET) on April 23. One and one-half inch miniature bronze replicas of the medal, priced at $3.75, also will be available. Customers may order these medals and other genuine United States Mint products at www.usmint.gov, or at the toll-free number, 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468). There is an additional shipping and handling fee of $4.95 per order. Presentation cases also are available.

By Jeff Starck for COIN WORLD

When trying to determine value of medals, many factors should be considered, which can sometimes overwhelm new collectors.

Medals are a very broad field, and condition and rarity, generally the keys to coin prices, are just among the first of several factors to consider with medals.

“The field of medals is so broad that it’s tough to talk about it as a monolith,” according to John Kraljevich, an expert in coins and exonumia. “Renaissance portrait pieces and ’so-called dollars’ have nearly nothing in common though both fall under the grand rubric of ‘medals’ – so it’s easy for a beginner to get overwhelmed within such a massive field.”

Coin World asked several experts to weigh in on what factors affect medal prices and how valuing medals is different than pricing coins.

Collecting by topic

Because the field of medal collecting is so broad, collectors like to categorize and collect by topic.

Read Full Coin World Article

Not many people understand the connection between Edgar Allan Poe and the City of Baltimore, home to the 2008 World’s Fair of Money®. But anyone purchasing a 117th Anniversary ANA Convention medal will own a striking collectible and gain a greater understanding of Poe’s connection to the city where he lived, wrote, died and was buried. Artist Jamie Franki conducted countless hours of research on Poe, searching for images preserved in portraits, daguerreotypes and drawings – as well as numismatic items that may have celebrated the author and his genius. But for all of his efforts, he found just one lowrelief, traditional side-view medal of Poe – used as a literary award by the New York Public Library in the late 19th century.

“This is quite possibly the second medal ever struck with Poe’s image,” Franki said. “This should give the medal an unusual appeal and make it quite collectible – especially for anyone who is a fan of Poe or American literature.”

Franki’s design features a three-quarter view of Poe in high relief. The portrait on the obverse is inspired by an oil painting by Baltimore artist Oscar Halling and “informed by every image I could find,” said Franki. The word, “Nevermore,” immortalized in The Raven, circles the edge above Poe’s head and a small incused silhouette of a raven is perched on his signature, which was taken from an archival scan.

The reverse tells the tale of the annual “Poe Toast,” where for each of the past 59 years on Poe’s birthday, a black-clad figure visits the gravesite and raises a cognac toast. The toaster then leaves a half-bottle of cognac and three roses on the grave.

“Poe is an absolutely fascinating person to draw,” said Franki, a coin collector who teaches art at the University of North Carolina – Charlotte. “He was poor, sickly, a substance abuser and an odd character. His face is asymmetrical; his mouth is at a different angle than his eyes, and he has a misshapen, sunken nature to his features. I wanted his expression to reflect his wit and intelligence as well as the somewhat tortured life that he lived. I looked at so many paintings, drawings and daguerreotypes that I’m confident I produced a pretty fair likeness of the man.” (more…)

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) — A collection of war medals that includes nine Victoria Cross medals, stolen from a New Zealand army museum more than two months ago, was recovered after police offered a reward for their return.

The medals were returned in good condition, New Zealand Police said in a statement e-mailed Feb. 16. The offer of a NZ$300,000 reward ($237,000) last month, the largest incentive ever posted in New Zealand, was instrumental in the medal’s return and a sum of money has been paid, the police said.

The 96 medals were stolen from an annex of the Waiouru Army Museum on New Zealand’s North Island on Dec. 2. They included a Victoria Cross and Bar awarded to Charles Upham, New Zealand’s most decorated soldier, as well as two George Medals and one Albert medal. The Victoria Cross is the highest military honor awarded to soldiers serving in the U.K. and in former British Empire countries.

The reward “encouraged a person to come forward and facilitate the return of the medals to police,” said Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Bensemann, head of the task force investigating the theft. “New Zealand Police celebrate the return of these national treasures.” Read Full Story

Love tokens are generally defined as coins where one side (or sometimes both sides) has been smoothed down and engraved with initials, names, phrases and/or scenes. These were often given to young ladies as “tokens of love” by suitors.

The manufacture and practice of giving “Love Tokens” seems to have originated in Great Britain in the early 1800’s, and then migrated to the United States in the mid- to late-1800’s.

The Liberty Seated dime is perhaps the most popular used to create love tokens, perhaps because of its smaller size and silver content, but love tokens are known to have been made from all denominations of U. S. coins from half cents through twenty-dollar gold pieces as well as numerous world coins and denominations.

Love Token enthusiasts have formed appropriately enough “The Love Token Society”. It is an international organization and can be found on the web at http://www.lovetokensociety.org

The standard reference work on love tokens is
“Love Tokens as Engraved Coins” by Lloyd L. Entenmann, privately published, 1991. You may have to search a bit to find a copy but they are available.

Coin World also published an article on Love Tokens a few years back. Read Article here