THE CHASE ARCHITRAVE COIN SCULPTURES

I think the Holy Grail of Bank Building Coin Sculptures was The Chase Architrave. It was built around 1928 as the entrance of the Chase Bank Building which housed the newly founded Museum of Moneys of the World. Chase National Bank had purchased Farran Zerbe's Money of the World educational exhibit which became the core of the new museum's collection. Mr. Zerbe was its resident numismatist and curator until 1939. Most of the museum's contents were donated to the Smithsonian in 1977.

The Architrave contained twenty-three marble sculptures depicting coins of the world. The coins were selected by the American Numismatic Society and range from the earliest known of Greek origin to the most recent from the U. S. at that time – the Peace Dollar. The only detailed picture I've been able to find is on AllPosters.com. The building is still at 18 Pine St., but the Architrave is gone (as viewed on GoogleMaps). I would think the marble sculptures were preserved and was hoping that E-Sylum readers may know something or have pictures. I did find the original booklet detailing the Architrave conception and describing each coin represented. Below is the inside cover page and artist's representation of the Architrave.

 

The coins depicted are as follows: Consecratio, Metapontum, Poseidonia, Tarentum, The Shekel, Areus of Augustus, The Holland Rider, Milan (Galeazzo Mario Sforza), Pine Tree Shilling, Francis I, Spanish Milled Dollar, The Peace Dollar, The Joachimthaler, Elizabeth (the Pound), New York Cent, Japan, Russia (St. George), The Florin, Ptolemy, Janus Head, Alexander The Great, Corinth (illustrated on the cover), and The Syracusan Decadrachm.

The Corinth and the images from several pages of these are shown below.

 

The U. S. Government would not allow the use of a photographic reproduction of the Peace Dollar, which carried the date of 1927. Consequently, I inserted ‘imagined' images on the page as shown below.

 

A picture from the New York Public Library shows the entrance to be less imposing and impressive from a distance. (Taken from the corner of Pine and Nassau with the U.S. Sub-Treasury Building to the right. Ford Model T puts the time frame from the late 1920's to 1930's).

 

Picture at left courtesy of The New York Public Library. The New York Times article was published November 11, 1928. A photo on the site AllPosters.com is presumably copyright protected. Each sculpture looks to be 16 to 20 inches in diameter.

To see the AllPosters.com photo:
https://www.allposters.com/-sp/The-Main-Entrance-to-the-Chase-Manhattan-Bank-Posters_i5026693_.htm

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: APRIL 10, 2022 : Fugio Cent on Philadelphia Bank Building (https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n15a18.html)
PHILADELPHIA BANK BUILDING COIN SCULPTURES (https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n16a07.html)

 

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web