The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 23, June 5, 2005, Article 23

GASPARRO MEDALS & MINT GOLD MARKING POLICY

I've been appraising a small collection for a local attorney,
and in it were two items that had not been properly inventoried
by the estate auctioneer. I recognized them as U.S. Mint
products and rightly suspected they were made of gold,
even though they were not marked as such. With the help of
Don Carlucci and Dick Johnson I confirmed that these were
the work of Frank Gasparro and are known as the "National
Medals for the American Bicentennial."

Dick Johnson wrote: "There were three sizes with the same
Gasparro design (thank you, Janvier die-engraving machine --
he made one model and the Janvier created three sizes!).

The largest was 3-inch and weighed 13.18 troy ounces, the
second was 1 5/16-inch (1.167 ounce) and the smallest was
.906-inch (0.37 ounce). Their respective issue prices were
$4,000, $400 and $100.

If you have back issues of Coin World Almanac in your
library see 1977 edition (page 14) or 1978 edition (p 426)."

Remarking on the lack of information on the pieces themselves,
Dick noted:: "Private industry must obey the "1906 Tiffany
Law" and must mark the fineness on all precious metal items
manufactured in U.S. The U.S. Mint does not honor this law.
It does not mark composition, fineness or maker on its precious
metal items! They should! Joe Levine has written about this
in The Numismatist recently."

I guess I had naively assumed that all non-coin precious metal
products of the Mint would adhere to the common-sense
standard markings used elsewhere. Had I not recognized these
pieces for what they were, they might have been sold without
regard to their gold content, resulting in a loss for the estate.
What other gold products has the mint produced without
proper identifying marks?

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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