THE 1930 ADMIRAL RICHARD BYRD PLAQUETTE

The Commendation plaquette to Admiral Richard E. Byrd from the Commonwealth of Mass. was presented to Byrd by Governor Frank G. Allen on June 27th, 1930. The presentation took place outdoors in the afternoon in the Parkman Bandstand on Boston Common. A noisy crowd of 50,000 or more were there. It was all part of a giant celebration to welcome Admiral Byrd back home to Boston. See the story in the Boston Globe - "Amazing Scenes in Explorers’ Fete" - June 28, 1930 pp1 & 6.

The plaquette is described and the one given to the Admiral was 10K gold. I especially liked Gov. Allen's translation of the Latin inscription: Palma Non Sine Pulvere, "Exploring is no cinch." On the same day another gold plaquette was presented to Byrd by Mayor James M. Curley on behalf of the City of Boston. The Mayor's plaquette was made by the Robbins Co. of Attleboro, MA and I suspect the Governor's plaquette came from the Robbins Co. too. As already noted it mimics the 1927 Lindbergh plaquette which was definitely done by the Robbins Co and was sculpted by John Gregory. For a good account of the Lindbergh plaquette see the New York Times story of June 17, 1927 entitled "Lindbergh Warns Of 'Wildcat' Plans".

The great majority of Byrd's medals, plaques, plaquettes and other awards were sold at auction at Sotheby's in London on November 10th 1988. The Mass. gold plaquette was lot 431 and was estimated at 3,000 to 5,000 pounds. It was illustrated in color in the auction catalog but did not sell. Its whereabouts today are unknown to me.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
ADMIRAL RICHARD BYRD MEDAL INFORMATION SOUGHT (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n50a23.html)

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