AMERICAN EXPOSITION OF NEW ORLEANS MEDALS

I was wondering if you were going to extend your Medals in Advertising series when the Campbell's soup can example came up.

 

The 1885 and 1886 North, Central, and South American Exposition of New Orleans awarded this medal which was engraved in the field around the central device as "Highest Award on Plain & Aerated Mineral Water to the Arcadian Mineral Spring Co. Waukesha, Wisconsin." The Arcadian was one of several dozen other natural springs celebrating the healing powers of Waukesha's waters from the late nineteenth to the very early twentieth centuries. Illustrations of this medal were used on the company's letterhead and identified as "Highest Award on Plain and Aerated Water." There apparently is another medal floating around for their Ginger Ale but I have yet to see it. A tin sign (presumably originally brightly colored but gray-tone in this rendition) gloats: "Only Gold Medal" although sticklers for accuracy may point out that the medal proper is more likely gilt Bronze. It is a whopping 72mm diameter, about 8mm thick, weighs over 250 grams (the limit on my scale) and has a plain edge.

 

The unsigned medal was produced by Philadelphia silversmith Peter Krider for the relatively obscure 1885-1886 North, Central, and South American Exposition in New Orleans which itself was promoted to recover losses from the 1884 World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition. I have seen a few other uninscribed bronze specimens cross the block in the last several years but no others gilt or inscribed pieces.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
THAT MEDAL ON CAMPBELL'S SOUP CANS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n39a27.html)

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