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V4 2001 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 4, Number 33, August 12, 2001, Article 9 WASHROOM WARRIOR MEDAL INFO SOURCES Joe Levine writes: "Funny that you asked me about what I have always referred to as the Huey Long Toilet Seat Medal. I too have written up this piece and it appeared in the Exonumia Notebook column that Dave Schenkman and I used to write. As I recall, the primary source of my info was T. Harry Williams' Pulitzer Prize winning biography of Huey Long, where he devotes considerable space to the incident. The ANS also has some interesting info on their presentation ceremony (which was a black tie event)!" Now out of cyber-hybernation, Dick Johnson writes: "This medal is listed in my upcoming directory of American Artists, Diesinkers, Engravers, Medalists and Sculptors of Coins and Medals. The entry is under the artist's name, George De Zayas. There are 19 lines in this entry and since this is the only medal he created (to my knowledge) it all applies to this medal. He was born in Mexico City in 1895. He was an illustrator for Collier's magazine. He died in Garwood New Jersey, 1967. He signed the Long Medal model with GZ initials. The artist was listed three times in Who's Who in American Art (1937, 1939, 1941). He is included in the massive 3-volume Who Was Who in American Art (by my publisher, Peter Hastings Falk) in volume 1, page 907. The medal was struck in 1933 by Medallic Art Company. It is their catalog number 33-47. It is in the collection of the American Numismatic Society (of course, since they conducted the award ceremony). It is ANS accession number 1933.83.1 which you can go to their website, enter this accession number and find its description. There is a symbol on this line indicating the ANS has more than one specimen in their collections. The medal has sold nine times at auction (that I have cited). I sold it twice in my Collectors' Auctions Limited; Joe Levine has auctioned it seven times in his Presidential Coin and Antique sales, from number 50 (lot 1078 in June 1991) to number 69 (lot 1359 in June 2001). The history of the medal was published in the Centennial History of the American Numismatic Society by Howard Adelson, pages 259-260. It was written up by Joe Levine in The Numismatist in the August 1977 issue, pages 1610- 1613. Ed Rochette included it in his book of columns, The Other Side of The Coin, pages 146-147. A plaster model made from the original galvano pattern was, indeed, mounted in the public men's room at Medallic Art's Danbury plant in 1972. It was in the shape of a toilet seat, but rendered as a fine bas-relief in good taste. Company president, Bill Louth, ordered it placed there. Since this restroom was across the hall from the room containing the archive medal cabinets, which was my charge, I used this facility often. I can remember standing at the urinal and memorizing the design of the open-mouthed, droopey-eyed fish and a fist smashing into it. I could draw it from memory to this day."

Wayne Homren, Editor

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