THE CYRUS FIELD MEDAL

At the present time, in this age of the Internet, we think nothing of contacting a person halfway around the world or visiting a website in some remote country. Yet, it is only in the past few decades that this remarkable change has come about. The revolution in communications, however, began more than 150 years ago…

Perhaps nothing so excited Americans in the 1840s as the telegraph, invented by Samuel Morse. It had spread like wildfire across the United States and Europe, but there was one great gap in this network: the Atlantic Ocean.

As early as 1843 Morse had predicted that the telegraph would eventually cross the ocean and establish instant communication between the Old and New Worlds. Morse’s ideas about an Atlantic telegraph line were not well known, but one person who gave them consideration was Cyrus Field. Mankind had dreamed for centuries of such a link and it was this one man who would bring the dream to reality.

Field crossed the ocean no less than 50 times in accomplishing the crowning achievement of his life. Foreign nations awarded him numerous decorations but the most deserved and highest honors came at home. The U.S. Congress voted him a gold medal in March 1867.

Joseph Goldsborough Bruff, a Treasury staff artist, prepared designs for both sides of the medal by late July 1867 and, after approval by Treasury Secretary Hugh McCulloch and President Andrew Johnson, they were sent to the Philadelphia Mint. Chief engraver James Longacre declined to prepare the dies because of his advanced age so it was turned over to assistant engraver William Barber.

To read the complete article, see:
Field honored for transatlantic cable (www.numismaticnews.net/article/field-honored-transatlantic-cable)

Wayne Homren, Editor

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web