GASPARRO'S 1976 BICENTENNIAL GOLD MEDAL

Stack’s Bowers Galleries is the official auctioneer of the 2015 American Numismatic Association (ANA) National Money Show and will conduct an auction featuring more than 1440 lots that covers a range of U.S. and colonial coins, patterns, private issues and medals.

The auction kicks off at 6:00pm Pacific Standard Time (PST) (9:00pm Eastern) and begins with a seemingly innocuous, but curiously seldom-seen modern gold medal issued in 1976 by the United States Mint.

1976 National Bicentennial Medal

Lot 1. Gold 76.2mm. 455.49 grams. Swoger-521a. Numbered 270 on Edge. PCGS MS-65

Weighing in at 13.18 troy ounces, this large 1976 National Bicentennial Gold Medal was a costly, much neglected and subsequently maligned official medallic offering from the U.S. Mint. Accounts differ on the final mintage of the piece (some read 423, others 424). Compare that to the .415 troy ounce version of the same design–of which 16,181 were sold–and there’s no question that this 1976 Frank Gasparro work was born scarce.

Scarcer still are the apparent few that survive. For whatever reason (some speculate the run on gold in the 1980s led many to be melted), this large format medal appears infrequently on the market. We’ve tracked down a handful of examples but hardly enough to determine a market price for the piece.

In 2008, Heritage offered one, which it described as rare. That medal changed hands for its value in gold at the time.

It wasn’t until 2014, at the February Stack’s Americana Sale in New York city, that we found another public transaction. That example was graded MS-67 by PCGS and came out of the Charles A. Wharton Collection. At the time of that sale, the medal contained approximately $17,305 USD worth of gold. The medal brought $32,400 with buyer’s premium- a sizable numismatic premium the second go around.

What the present issue brings is anybody’s guess. Our hunch is $24,000 to $26,000, if it sells. PCGS graded it MS-65.

The design itself does not inspire; Gasparro’s art rarely did.

But it’s competent in a dated sort of way, and reminiscent of the many bicentennial gewgaws and knickknacks marketed at the time – a time that feels ever more distant as we enter the latter half of the second decade of the 21st century.

To read the complete article, see:
Stack’s Bowers to Offer Seldom Seen Bicentennial Gold Medal at ANA National Money Show Auction (www.coinweek.com/coins/medals-and-tokens/stacks-bowers-to-offer-seldom-seen-bicentennial-gold-medal-at-ana-national-money-show-auction/)

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