MEDAL HONORS NATIONAL MOTTO ANNIVERSARY

2014 is the 150th Anniversary of our Nation’s Motto “In God We Trust”. A Pennsylvania numismatist, Tom Uram, has been displaying his award winning exhibit “Historically Significant Two Cent Piece 1864-1872” for close to six years, his exhibit has won various awards at the annual ANA convention, Central States, FUN and PAN shows. For those that are not aware the motto “In God We Trust” first appeared on the 1864 Two Cent piece and Tom’s exhibit highlighted this point.

Last year, knowing the 150th anniversary was fast approaching, he started talking about designing a medal to celebrate the event. With the encouragement of family and friends he started his arduous journey. It wasn’t a journey he was unfamiliar with, having redesigned the membership medal for the Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists, along with fellow PAN members Ben Costello and Rich Jewell; followed by a 50th Anniversary medal for the George Washington Numismatic Association, with club member Tom Gnagey assisting and also the design for the 50th Anniversary Medal for the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, Washington, PA., as well as a 100th Anniversary medal for St. John The Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church in Lyndora, PA. He knew approximately how long each step would take to complete his task and he knew basically what design he wanted to work with.

He determined that the three main characters playing a historical role in establishing our Nation’s Motto should be recognized on the obverse and the reverse should be similar to the obverse of the two cent piece (See the enclosed story line below). Once he decided this to be his final design concept he took it to U.S.Mint engraver (and AMSA member) Don Everhart.

Don stated that he could work on the models on weekends and should be able to complete the designs in plaster for Tom’s approval within a couple of months. The plasters were ready for Tom’s viewing sometime this past February and he was totally satisfied with the end result, so much so that he wanted signed copies of the plasters for a possible addition to his award winning exhibit. Tom took the plasters to the CCAC meeting at the beginning of March to accomplish this task.

Fellow AMSA and CCAC members Heidi Wastweet and Jeanne Stevens-Sollman were present when Don signed the plasters for Tom. As of this writing the finished medals have not been returned from the Northwest Territorial Mint in Dayton, NV. But here are examples of the original signed plasters without the lettering.

Author’s note: Tom Uram has been collecting coins, medals and other numismatic items for over thirty years. He is a member of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Commission (CCAC), a Life Member of the American Numismatics Association, the current President of the Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists (PAN), the President of the George Washington Numismatic Association, and a member of various other numismatic clubs and associations in Western Pennsylvania and across the country.

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