... an 1831 Mexican two bits overstruck with the bust of Jenny Lind. I could not find much on Jenny Lind medals, and as far as I remember leafing through the ANS Numismatic Notes publication on her medals a good while back, it's not in there. Is this a newer creation, or is this actually contemporary to the 1850 tour of the U.S. of the "Swedish Nightingale"?

This circa 1960's restrike from original obverse dies is fairly common and comes overstruck on silver dollars and other various coins, including a Swedish 2 skilling currently on eBay.

I am aware of 4 or 5 such overstruck coins sold on eBay by a token dealer out of Henderson NC. I bought one recently and inquired of the seller when the die was made and the coins overstruck. The reply was that the die was made in the 1880s and the coins overstruck sometime in the 20th century, dealer did not know when. The dealer said I knew as much as they knew. I would be interested in knowing when they first came on the market.

Some years ago I was President of the Chicago Coin Club, and I collected CCC medals. Two off-shoots of the CCC were the Chicago Numismatic Roundtable and the Chicago Numismatic Society. The CNR was active in the 1940's, with C. Sam Carlson (ANA 4162 in 1932, died 1978) a driving force.

Carlson's specialty was Swedish coinage. He had a particular love for Jenny Lind, and under the auspices of the CNR had issued (probably by J Henri Ripstra, ANA LM 29, Numismatic Hall of Fame, died 1961) a large number of medals overstruck on various coins. This "stock" die of Lind comes struck on a wide variety of coins, generally in very small mintages for each undertype. Overall his output was large.

I have a fair collection of these, perhaps several dozen different. Carlson and the CNR also issued imitation Swedish Plate Money, with corners struck with a "CNR" die, in very small quantities. I have two different.

There was a big group of those Jenny Lind medals in the July 10-11, 1998 Presidential Coin and Antiques auction - Lot 705.

This perfectly explains all the questions I had in connection with this medalet. I had already suspected a numismatist's work behind it but had no idea that - and if so, how - Jenny Lind would still inspire the striking of her portrait so many decades after her tour (although I imagined 1950/1951, the centenary, to be its most likely raison d'être).

It's great to be able to put a story behind this item.