Coin Collecting News

The world-famous Medallic Art Company announced today a new web site, www.medallic.com , designed to better display its 100+ years of minting excellence and to provide ready access for customers and art historians to numerous product categories, galleries, and historic slide presentations and custom minting information.

The new www.medallic.com is intuitive, which lets a site visitor navigate with ease, letting visitors examine Medallic Art Company’s custom medals, institutional chains and maces, stock and collectible medals, specialty items, lapel pins, and spinning medals and plaques. The ten new galleries feature outstanding creations of renowned sculptors such as James Earle Fraser (the Buffalo Nickel), Victor David Brenner (the Lincoln cent), and Augustus Saint-Gaudens (the ‘double eagle” coin). Since its creation, great artists have always been affiliated with Medallic Art Company.

The new website also provides a fascinating look at the entire minting process from concept to finished medallion, underscoring the complexity and artistry demanded of the sculptors, artists, die-makers, and production specialists in the creation of a fine work of art. Highlighted for visitors is the complete film, “The Medal Maker.” First shown to the Society of Medalists in 1929, it features multi-award winning coin and medal designer, sculptor Laura Gardin Fraser in her famous New York Studio in 1929 creating the models for the Special Medal of Honor for the National Sculpture Society, America’s highest sculptural award. Every step of creation and production is shown, including sketching, preparing background plate, transferring the drawing and applying clay pellets to the model, foundry casting of the pattern, die making and striking the medal at Medallic Art Company. This exceptional movie is narrated by Elizabeth Jones, sculptor, and former United States Mint Chief Engraver, from her studio in Philadelphia.

About Medallic Art Company

Medallic Art Company was formed in 1903 by Henry Weil, a highly respected French sculptor living in New York City. Through the years, the company has reproduced bas relief work of some of the most famous 20th century American sculptors, as well as many of the important medals and awards in the United States, including the Pulitzer Prize, Congressional Medal of Honor, National Medal of Science, President’s Medal for Freedom, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, and the inaugural medals for 11 United States Presidents. Continued

These coins were part of a family’s possessions during World War II exile and remained together for more than 65 years.

NGC has certified a very interesting group of Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles that have remained in the possession of a family since prior to World War II. When purchased in Europe last month, their unusual history was revealed to the buyer. During the turbulent period prior to World War II, these coins were a trove meant to sustain a family through the worst possible situation.

Just subsequent to the Nazi invasion of this family’s home country in 1940, each of these coins was sewn into the lining of a leather coat. With great risk, they were spirited out to a safe-haven neutral country, where they have been kept ever since.

According to the gold buyer, who relayed the history of these coins to NGC, the family in possession of the coins elected to sell them this year because gold had risen to record price levels. The group of 200 coins has been encapsulated with the pedigree WWII EXILE HOARD.

While other US gold coins come from caches with similar histories, several features contribute to the significance of this group. When they arrived at NGC, many of the coins still had bits of leather still adhering to the coins’ rims.

At the submitter’s request, professionals at Numismatic Conservation Services expertly removed the leather so that the coins would be eligible for certification. Their unconventional storage imparted a number of the coins with a delicate reddish patina that was left untouched during conservation.

Another unusual feature is the uniformly high grade of these coins. Each graded from MS 63 to MS 67, with seven coins achieving this highest grade and a greater number grading each MS 66 and MS 66+. All are dated 1924 and 1925, with over three-quarters being from the latter date.

‘First example’ of the 1882 Gold banknote sells with $500,000 estimate
Paul Fraser Collectibles
Limited to just 14,000, this note, appearing for sale for only the second time, is the star at Heritage. Heritage Auctions, the official auctioneer of the Florida United Numismatists (FUN) Show, will present a substantial number of rare and exceptional notes as part of its Signature Currency Auction. The sale is being held on January 6-10 in Tampa, Florida.
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Dealers Confused by New America the Beautiful Sale Rules
Numismatic News
Dealers say new rules imposed by the U.S. Mint on the sale of 5-ounce silver bullion coins are far from clear. “I think there is some question on exactly how those rules apply, and we don’t have answers to the questions,” said Michael Haynes, CEO of American Precious Metals Exchange, one of 11 companies authorized by the Mint to sell the new America the Beautiful coins. APMX has ordered 3,000 sets, the maximum allowed per distributor.
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Yoko Donates Gold Lennon Coin
Numismaster
A unique 22-karat gold version of the new John Lennon £5 coin of Alderney has been donated by Yoko Ono to Great Britain’s Alder Hey Hospital’s Imagine Appeal for auction next year to raise money. Ono is the widow of the famous Beatle songwriter/singer/musician. The coin is part of the British Royal Mint’s Great Britons series of £5 silver Alderney coins. Lennon was chosen to accompany in the series such luminaries of history as Winston Churchill by choice of the British public.
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Interview with the Central Bank of Ireland’s Coin Department Head of Marketing
Coin Update News
One of the most innovative sets of national coinage of its day (many would say they can still hold their own against some of the most innovative coinage concepts today) were the designs which came to be affectionately known as the “Barnyard” series. They are once again resurrected as Ireland issues the first of three coins in a new series of silver collector crowns. In 1926, a commission organized to decide the themes for circulation coins of the newly established Irish Free State came into being and was headed by the poet (and later Senator) W. B. Yeats.
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The 1962 Seattle World’s Fair Million Silver Dollar Exhibit
The E-Sylum
One of the many committees working on the 1962, six-month-long, Seattle World’s Fair, which would live on in the Space Needle and Monorail, was responsible for producing, promoting and selling souvenir medals for the exposition. The committee, with Northwest Historic Medals, was also charged with producing a venue for medal sales and was thus attracted to an advertisement for Behlen buildings. The committee also conceived of the display of a million silver dollars to attract medal purchasers and thus contacted Gerry Joseph, Behlen’s sales manager, to see if they might be interested in a package promotion.
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US Mint Sales: Silver Coin Products in Demand
Silver Coins Today
The United States Mint welcomed a newcomer to their America the Beautiful product portfolio. The five ounce 2010 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins began with debut sales of 75,000 from Authorized Purchasers. That is 375,000 ounces of silver in a single day on their launch Friday.As for the other US Mint bullion product, demand for Silver Eagle bullion coins picked up compared to the first week of December. The .999 fine bullion Silver Eagles advanced 1,005,000 in the last seven days, which totals 1,422,000 in the first half of December. Annual sales rolled in at 34,312,500.
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