MORE ON THE HALL OF FAME MEDAL ALBUMS

I was delighted at the interest expressed in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans medal series (HOF) by brothers Lange and Jewell in The E-Sylum. The HOF albums are indeed fascinating and little known: 10 3/4 x 8 3/8 inches, shiny black, spines silver-stamped THE HALL OF FAME FOR GREAT AMERICANS, in tiny letters at base Coin &/ Currency/ Institute,/ Inc.. N.Y. 1. Front covers bear a silver square enclosing THE HALL OF FAME/ FOR/ GREAT AMERICANS/ AT/ NEW YORK/ UNIVERSITY with stylized bust and pedestal at right.

Inside are removable black-flocked pages with die-cut holes which seldom fit the medals exactly. After striking, the medals were lathe-trimmed to create wide variances in actual diameter. Medals had to be jammed into the openings by main force or else flopped in easily, only to fall out and jumble-jingle to the bottom. The weight of the 44mm silver or bronze medals frequently caused the album covers to detach fairly quickly.

The full story of HOF has yet to be published, though a completed book-length manuscript exists . This contains a vast amount of material: history of HOF, how many medalists actually took part; how the series was governed; how Laura Gardin Fraser's death necessitated completion of her work in her inimitable style by another leading medallic sculptor; biographies of the artists.

The story is fascinating and is ready for publication should a suitable publisher come forward. For more information, contact David Thomason Alexander at Alexander.numismatics@gmail.com.

I read the article in last week's E-Sylum on the Hall of Fame for Great Americans medals. I have a number of these albums which I bought on eBay a few years ago. Each album has one page with 12 holes for 1-3/4" medals. There is no lettering for individual medals in the series-- that is, each album is the same.

Hall of Fame for Great Americans medal album cover

The albums are about 10-1/2' x 8-1/2" x 1" in the shape of a shallow box. The front cover opens like a book. The page to hold the medal is not attached to the album, but there is a ribbon to help remove the page and see the back side of the medals. Since there are only 12 holes for medals in each album, it would require 8 albums for either the full set of 1-3/4" bronze or silver medals. I have never seen an album for the larger 3" bronze medals. These medals are probably too large and heavy for an album.

My experience is that the albums don't function very well. The medals are relatively heavy and the hole tolerances are such that the medals often fall out of the album. I would call these large folders instead of albums. There are no slides to hold the medals in place.

The cover page of these albums is nice. I used a couple of these cover pages from albums in bad shape as a cover page in 3-ring binders where I store my medals.

I have several of these albums in nice shape. If David Lange's is interested in an album for his collection, he can contact me and I will be happy to send him one.