COMING NEW BOOK EXPLORES AMERICA’S GREATEST MEDALS AND TOKENS

 Atlanta, Georgia — Whitman Publishing announces the release of The 100 Greatest American Medals and Tokens, by Katherine Jaeger and Q. David Bowers. In this beautifully illustrated book, the authors take the reader on a personal guided tour of these historical artifacts of colonial America, the early states, the Confederacy, the U.S. Mint, and private issuers.

 “Each of the 100 Greatest was voted into place by leading exonumia dealers, researchers, collectors, and historians,” says Whitman publisher Dennis Tucker. Inside the reader will find prized and seldom seen rarities—the unique and high-valued pieces that collectors dream about. The famous Libertas Americana medal, featured on the front cover, is significant for its influence on the United States’ first coinage. The book also explores more readily available and widely popular medals and tokens: pieces so beautiful or with such fascinating stories that everybody wants one. The “Am I Not a Brother?” token that implored against slavery, the copper Civil War tokens that circulated in place of regular coinage in the early 1860s, the Indian Peace medals given to chiefs in the Old West, and dozens more are pictured in striking full color.

 The book includes a foreword and appreciation by numismatic legends Russ Rulau and David Alexander. An illustrated introduction tells the history of medals and tokens in America and how they evolved. Prices from the past and present, recent auction results, and tips on collecting each of the 100 Greatest give a view of today’s market. The authors describe how to collect and enjoy medals and tokens, aspects of the marketplace, grading, conservation, and smart buying. And an information-rich appendix describes the pieces voted 101–200, offering the reader a springboard for further exploration.

 “The 100 Greatest American Medals and Tokens is not just a price guide or a fancy picture book,” says Whitman publisher Dennis Tucker. “It’s a time machine that takes the reader to a hundred different points in American history. And it’s a fascinating introduction to the hobby of collecting these important pieces of material culture.”

 Readers will travel back to colonial America, before the Revolution, and to the early days of the defiant young nation. They will cheer the Father of His Country, George Washington, just as medal collectors did at the height of Washington-mania in the 1800s. They will relive the drama and tension of the Civil War, and they will celebrate the nation’s great festivals and expositions of the early 1900s. The book includes some familiar faces, such as Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt... and readers will meet some unique and colorful characters including P.T. Barnum, Dr. Lewis Feuchtwanger, Chief Red Jacket, and Samuel Higley, among many others.

 Hound dogs and beavers, circuses and funerals, Army officers and Indians, politicians and Pulitzer Prize winners—all of these and more await the reader in the 100 Greatest American Medals and Tokens. 

The book is coffee-table-size,144 pages, full color, with photographs and stories for each piece. It also includes market values, field populations, quantities struck, and catalog references. Retail price is $29.95. A special leather-bound Limited Edition will also be available.

 The 100 Greatest American Medals and Tokens will be available in mid-2007 at hobby shops and bookstores nationwide.

The book will retail for $29.95. In full color, hardbound. Available nationwide in Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Borders, etc., or from numismatic dealers. Right now at Stack’s (can be ordered through our website http://www.stacks.com) we have a pre-publication offer of $22.95 plus $5 shipping for advance orders. Autographed, too. Shipment immediately upon publication this summer.

Medals Foreword

By David T. Alexander

Medal collecting is enjoying a renaissance in the United States today, echoing the vast popularity medals enjoyed in the pioneer era of American numismatics in the mid-19th century. Medals occupied an honored niche in all of the great collections from the first stirrings of numismatic interest in the 1850s until the 1890s triggered the sudden and all-consuming focus on U.S. coins by date and mintmark.

Medals underwent decades of neglect, despite the virtually limitless topical interest they offer. Medals span the worlds of art, history, biography, science, and industry and are unmatched for the colorful variety of size, shape and metal in which they are struck or cast. The medal was popular with European collectors since its re-invention by Antonio Pisano, called Pisanello, in Italy during the 15th century. Medals were a recognized medium for the expression of fine art and commemoration in Italy, the German States, the Netherlands, France, and Britain.

Medals relating to American colonial history were catalogued by C. Wyllys Betts, though his researches were published in 1894 after his death, and the items he included are still referred to as “Betts medals” to the occasional amusement of our European colleagues. The Continental Congress fathered the new nation’s first official medals, the famous Comitia Americana series, hailing Revolutionary War heroes beginning with a medal commemorating Washington’s role in the British evacuation of Boston.

These earliest medals were struck at the Paris Mint, since the struggling United States would have no operating mint until 1793. Enterprising merchants Jacques Manly and Joseph Sansom created the earliest privately issued medals on what became a favorite national theme, the life and career of George Washington. A key factor that caused American medal collecting to lag behind has been the lack of adequate guides and catalogues, but Washingtoniana is a notable exception. This area flourishes today thanks to William S. Baker’s classic Medallic Portraits of Washington, first published in 1885, updated in modern times by Russell Rulau and Dr. George Fuld.

The infant Philadelphia Mint soon played a major role in developing the American medal through its series of Indian peace, presidential, military and naval, exposition and award, and other medals of all kinds. U.S. Mint medals have become another well-charted area, made accessible to today’s collectors by R.W. Julian’s masterful Medals of the United States Mint, the First Century, published in 1977.

Outside the Mint, private medalists of the 19th century such as the exceptionally talented engraver Charles Cushing Wright, Robert Lovett Jr., his prolific brother George Hampden Lovett, Boston’s Joseph Merriam, and John Adams Bolen of Springfield, Massachusetts added to the corpus of America’s medallic treasures. The Civil War triggered a major flurry of activity in the form of award and commemorative medals for battles, heroes, and commanders and veterans’ organizations on both sides of the Blue-Gray divide.

As the 20th century dawned, the U.S. Mint faded from leadership in medallic art. The honors passed to private companies, notably Whitehead & Hoag of Newark, New Jersey, and the youthful Medallic Art Company of New York City. Although it struck a vast array of medals, the Newark firm deliberately avoided any emphasis on the artistic component of its medals, preferring to emphasize the utilitarian business and industrial aspects of their products.

Medallic Art, on the other hand, based its total business strategy on the closest possible interaction with the art community. The firm was born just as the art medal came into its own in 1908 with the creation of the Circle of Friends of the Medallion by Robert L. Hewitt and Charles DeKay. The Circle issued two art medals a year inserted in hardbound books until 1915, with Medallic Art producing the first and last issues.

This two-medal-per-year format was revived by George Dupont Pratt when he launched the Society of Medalists (SOM) in 1928 and issued its first art medals in 1930. This greatest series of true art medals continued into the 1990s. Produced with the stated goal of fostering excellence in American medallic sculpture, SOM medals offer the bas-relief art of many legendary artists whose work in any other form would be prohibitively expensive today.

Some non-profit organizations produced a medal series, notably the New York City-based American Numismatic Society. Their first medal in 1866 by Emil Sigel was dedicated to the memory of Abraham Lincoln. Producing this ultra high relief medal nearly bankrupted the young Society, but it rallied and went on to issue many outstanding medal issues into the 21st century.

Medallic Art Company issues covered a wide spectrum of events and subjects including state and local anniversaries and most of the finer issues of the American Revolution Bicentennial, medals for colleges, universities, business and industry, aviation and space, railroads and shipping, learned societies, and organizations of all descriptions.

Its work for numismatic groups included the convention and award medals of the American Numismatic Association (ANA) over several decades. Typical of its work for smaller organizations is the nearly century-old series of presidential medals of the New York Numismatic Club, now struck by Medalcraft Mint of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Medallic Art was a major producer of presidential inaugural medals. The U.S. Mint struck those of Herbert Hoover to Harry S Truman, but Medallic Art struck most of the classic designs into the 1990s, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. This specialized area was galvanized by the catalogues of Richard Dusterberg, Neil MacNeil and H. Joseph Levine, which created a collecting boom in inaugural medals in the mid-1970’s.

The world of the medal was impacted by the meteoric rise of the Franklin Mint after 1967. This merchandising giant aggressively marketed its coin-relief, Proof surface products as “medals” to a wide spectrum of non-numismatic buyers. Franklin Mint pieces were only tangentially related to high relief art and historical medals, and their lamentable secondary market performance gave “medals” a bad name to a public unaware of such distinctions.

Numismatic auctions have played a pivotal role in re-igniting collector enthusiasm for American medals. Sales of the great Garrett family collection by Bowers and Ruddy Galleries in 1979-1981 electrified many series, including privately issued 19th century medals and issues of the U.S. Mint. The great inaugural medal and U.S. Mint collection of David W. Dreyfuss was sold by Bowers and Merena in combination with Presidential Art and Antique Co. (headed by medal pioneer H. Joseph Levine), and introduced Michael J. Hodder to medal cataloguing. Johnson & Jensen of Danbury, Connecticut (which featured David T. Alexander as cataloguer 1981-1983) was important in its time.

One of the oldest U.S. numismatic auctioneers, Stack’s of New York City, initiated high quality medal auctions since 1990 including its annual Americana Sales. Stack’s recently launched a series of sales offering the vast collection of the late dealer-collector John J. Ford Jr. (1925-2005). In his busy lifetime, Ford built collections in numerous areas including Betts medals and general U.S. Mint and Indian peace medals that were the greatest ever assembled by a private collector.

Organizations serving medal collectors appeared only in the later 20th century. The Token and Medal Society (TAMS) was organized in 1960 and its Journal featured many high quality medal articles, especially in its early years. The Orders and Medals Society of America (OMSA) was formed to serve collectors in these specialized areas.

Interested medallic sculptors and collectors including the present writer organized the American Medallic Sculpture Association (AMSA) in 1982. That organization soon directed most of its efforts into the areas of actual medal sculpting and production. There was still no organization specifically focused on the needs of medal collectors, although an attempt was made in 1972 when the short-lived Collectors of Art Medals blazed across the horizon.

The long-standing need was met in August 1998, when Medal Collectors of America (MCA) was born at the American Numismatic Association convention at Portland, Oregon. Under the leadership of presidents David T. Alexander and John W. Adams. MCA has achieved solid growth and launched publications that are full of promise for the medal field.

It can be safely said that the future for medal collecting is bright in the 21st century, enriched by organizations and publications, of which the present volume is a significant example.

Copyright 2007 by Whitman Publishing