QUERY: PEARL HARBOR VETS CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL DIE

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V21 2018 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 21, Number 32, August 12, 2018, Article 21

Peter Huntoon passed along this inquiry from Thomas Mcanear at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Thanks. -Editor

I have an inquiry from a Congressional Research Service Specialist on the following:

"I have a question regarding the Congressional Medal for Veterans of the Attack on Pearl Harbor. Authorized by P.L. 101-510, Â§1492 (104 Stat. 1721, November 5, 1990), the legislation authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to design and mint bronze medals. In total, approximately 33,000 medals were minted.

"I have a congressional client who has inquired about the location of the die used to strike the medals. The US Mint does not know where the die might be, so I wanted to inquire with the National Archives in case you had the die or any of the surrounding artwork that might be associated with this coin program."

We don't have the die of course, but I thought one of your connections might know about the die? Or the artwork associated with the Medal?

We're all confused as to why the U.S. Mint wouldn't know where its own die is. That's 28 years ago to be sure, but isn't there a handy die vault for such storage? Peter passed the query along to me and American Numismatic Association museum curator Doug Mudd. -Editor

I am not aware of such a die or of any artwork related to it at the National Numismatic Collection. I do know that the few US Mint dies that were in the collection were cancelled. I was only aware of a couple of presidential dies - and no artwork other than that related to Morgan and the Barbers' notebooks.

Can anyone help? I'll send the query to contacts at the NNC, but I suspect all roads will lead back to the Mint. Meanwhile, does anyone have images of the medal? -Editor