The Dalai Lama was on Capitol Hill to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honour in the United States. The decision to present the award infuriated China’s Communist leaders, who on Wednesday said they were insulted by American “interference” in the country’s internal affairs.

Congress was honouring the Dalai Lama because of his importance as a religious figure, and in recognition of his efforts toward peace, nonviolence, human rights and religious understanding and tolerance.

The Congressional Gold Medal was designed and struck by the Mint and was presented by Bush to the Dalai Lama in the Capitol Rotunda. The U.S. Mint is now offering bronze replicas of that medal to the general public.

The front of the medal, designed by Mint sculptor-engraver Don Everhart, includes a portrait of the Dalai Lama with the Himalayas in the background. The inscriptions are “14th Dalai Lama of Tibet,” “enzin Gyatso,” which is his birth name, “Act of Congress” and “2006.”

The reverse, designed by Joseph Menna, a Mint medallic sculptor, shows a stylized lotus flower, a symbol of purity, and a quotation from the Dalai Lama: “World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not the absence of violence. Peace is the manifestation of human compassion.”

Three-inch bronze reproductions of the medal went on sale Wednesday at $38. The shipping and handling fee is $4.95 per order. Presentation cases are available. For information, go to www.usmint.gov or call (800) 872-6468.

The gold medal presented to Commodore Matthew C. Perry by merchants of Boston “…in token of their appreciation of his services in negotiating the treaty with Japan signed at Yoku-Hama, March 31, and with Lew Chew at Napa, July 11, 1854…” sold with its raggedy original case for $165,000 (including buyer’s premium) to one of ten phone bidders at Bruce Gamage’s auction in Rockland, Maine, on Monday, August 27.

The medal was struck in 1856 at the U.S. Mint on request and paid for by the Boston merchants. There was this one gold medal struck along with 20 silver medals and 104 bronze medals.

The price far exceeded the most ambitious presale estimate of $30,000/40,000 posited by serious buyers. According to auctioneer Gamage, the buyer was a collector from New York City who wishes to remain anonymous. The underbidder on the floor was New York City coin and medals dealer Anthony Terranova. (more…)

Dallas, TX: One of the greatest engineering undertakings ever accomplished was the building of the Erie Canal in order to connect the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. The canal, although conceived several years earlier, was constructed between 1817 and 1825 and connected the Hudson River to Lake Erie, allowing a much quicker and more inexpensive transportation method than traditional land travel. The finished canal resulted in a considerable population surge in western New York, and eventually areas even further west. American commerce flourished, and international trade increased. Even by today’s standards, the completion of such an enormous civil engineering project would garner respect. Now, consider the utter lack of engineering resources, manpower, and finances that challenged early proponents of the manmade waterway. Obviously, the completion of the Erie Canal was cause for much fanfare. Statewide celebrations took place throughout late 1825 and into early 1826. (more…)

NEW YORK - An ornate gold medal depicting an eagle, commissioned by George Washington and later presented to the Marquis de Lafayette, is to be sold at auction later this year.

Sotheby’s auction house made the announcement Thursday, on the 250th anniversary of Lafayette’s birth. The gold and enamel medal — showing an eagle surrounded by a laurel wreath — was designed as a symbol of the ideals of the Revolutionary War. It is estimated to bring up to $10 million at the Dec. 11 sale.

After Washington’s death, the medal was presented to Lafayette by Washington’s family; it was consigned to the auction by Lafayette’s great-great granddaughter, Baronne Meunier du Houssoy, of France.

“This medal is a treasure from the age of heroes; one of those magical artifacts that burns through time and transports us to a moment that changed the world forever,” David Redden, vice chairman of Sotheby’s, said in a statement. “Not only is it a precious and unique work of art, but a link between two men who, against the most improbable odds, managed to change the course of history.”

Dallas, TX: An extremely rare medal minted circa 1801 will be sold in Heritage’s 61st Official September Long Beach Signature Auction. The special Tokens and Medals auction will be held September 28-29 at the Long Beach Convention Center.

“Heritage is especially excited about this important discovery,” noted Heritage President Greg Rohan. “The 1801 Emancipator of America medal, Baker-83, is rarity-ranked as a low R.8. For decades, numismatic researchers have known of only two examples of the medal, which was struck circa 1801. The first of those resides permanently in the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the second was sold in 2004 in the John J. Ford, Jr. sale. This previously unreported third piece was purchased through a private transaction with a numismatic firm in London, and has been impounded in the same collection since 1957. Once the Ford example was sold, collectors had virtually no hopes of obtaining one.”

Russell Rulau and George Fuld described this issue in their Medallic Portraits of Washington (1999); their illustration, the holed and gilt example from the John J. Ford Collection, still realized $11,500 in 2004. The obverse features a right-facing bust of GEORGE WASHINGTON, while on the reverse the Angel of Fame, blowing her trumpet, flies above an olive and oak wreath containing EMANCIPATOR OF AMERICA. (more…)