PREV ARTICLE
NEXT ARTICLE
FULL ISSUE
PREV FULL ISSUE
1949 HARRY TRUMAN OFFICIAL INAUGURAL MEDAL
This medal caught my eye in Joe Levine's January, 2013 Fixed Price List of Official Presidential Inaugural
Medals and Memorabilia. To get a copy of the list, contact Joe at
JLevine968@aol.com
.
-Editor
OFFICIAL MEDAL. HST 1949-3. 51mm. Bronze. Carl Paul Jennewein, Sc. (U.S. Mint). Obverse with a robust portrait of Truman to the left surrounded by 48 stars. The reverse features a preeminent figure of Liberty and a group of small figures below meant to suggest the aspirations of humanity for Freedom. The reverse is inscribed: HARRY S/ TRUMAN/ INAUGURATED PRESIDENT/ OF THE/ UNITED STATES/ JANUARY 20/ 1949.
Joe's Fixed Price List stated the president's name as "HARRY S. TRUMAN", but I couldn't resist this nitpick. Look closely at the medal. It's "Harry S Truman" (with no period after the S).
Now, Truman did indeed use a period after his middle initial in his signature, and most official government documents use the period as well. But editors have been in a tizzy ever since because Truman didn't actually have a full middle name, just the letter "S", said to be a compromise of his parents between the names of his two grandfathers. Since it's not an abbreviation, should there be a period? With or without the period, it's a great medal by Jennewein. -Editor Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
|