ROOSEVELT MEDALS FASCINATE A COLLECTOR

My January issue of The Numismatist arrived this week with an interesting article on two Theodore Roosevelt Medals. Collector William D. Robertson had researched the first and was looking for more information on the second.

This is. indeed, what I advise any collector to do, as every coin, medal and token has a story to tell. This additional data more than what is obvious on the two sides of piece is called the lore of the specimen. This lore is often what makes our collecting activity so fascinating. Here is what I can add about the medals from my Databank.

The first, and most attractive medal, was indeed created by James Earle Fraser, which is correct, But neither that medal, nor the second bearing a similar portrait of President Roosevelt had anything to do with the U.S. Mint which was intimated in the last paragraph.

The medal, for the Roosevelt Memorial Association, was called their Founders Medal. It was struck, not by the U.S. Mint, but by Medallic Art Company which had produced most all of Fraser's medallic creations outside the Mint.

It is the firm's catalog number 1929-020, further it was cited in Barbara Baxter's book on the Beaux Art Medal in America as 237. It has appeared more than a dozen times at auction in the last two decades.

The second medal, which the article's sub-head states "A collector learns that an attractive uniface medal is not a medal at all" is completely incorrect! The medal again was struck by Medallic Art Company, catalog number 1968-167. The portrait is the same from that 1920 medal.

It was, indeed, to be mounted in the gun stock of a Colt Winchester rifle -- illustrated in the article -- this was one of a long series of medals the firm had produced for Winchester.

The article downplays the type of medallic item. No surprise to medal collectors the piece is firmly considered a medal. Despite the fact it was struck on a coin press, the firm's German Schuller coining press, it is a medal as much as any dollar-size medal with one or two sides.

Now, the research for all this will be accommodated for all, collectors, writers -- and even editors -- shortly. My Databank of 40,000 coins, medals and tokens is weeks away from leaping onto the internet. Such questions for seeking the basic data for all American numismatic items for whom we know their creators will be free on a web site. With a few computer button clicks that info mentioned above will be revealed.

Finally, collector Robertson will be glad to learn, that uniface Roosevelt medal is more rare than the Memorial Medal. Since all were mounted on gun stocks, very few are loose and got into collectors hands.

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web