All right. Okay. Well, uh, we will get started. I have to thank you all for braving the cold weather and the impending snowstorm. So, we we appreciate the fact that you made it here today. So, um, I am delighted to
introduce our speaker, Alex Craft. He is um a Westport resident and I have to say I'm always um I continue to be surprised by the people that you meet here in in Westport. You never know
who they are and you know what their hobbies are. And so I was um delighted to discover that Alex is a collector of medals and coins. Uh but he's not just any any collector that I found off off
the street. Um he is um the vice president of the American Numismatic Society and he serves as a trustee of the American Medallic Sculpture Association and he is here today to give us a
whirlwind tour uh of 250 years of history. Thank you Alex. Thank you, Jane. And I promise I'll get you out uh this year. I mean, maybe through 250 years. Um I'll try to limit
it to 40 minutes, but it will be hard uh because there's a lot of material to cover. I'll just uh Jenny introduced me uh very kindly and so I don't have to say much more. For those who are really interested in this subject, they can go to medallicartcollector.com,
my website, and take a look at some more beautiful medals. Uh, because there are so many misconceptions about what a metal is, I thought I'd start with a little definition of that because people are mostly familiar with coins.
uh coins go back to about 100 BC and uh since those days coins have been the predominant mechanism of payment. Uh so the definition of a coin is something that is an instrument of payment. And
uh the other thing that people are familiar with is what we nismatists call a decoration or an award. That's what you think of when you hear metal. You probably think military metal that you can pin to your uh to your tunic or wear
around the neck. Uh we would call that a decoration or an award. Uh what you see here is one famous example that is the uh American Medal of Honor which has the distinction of being the only uh decoration that cannot be
purchased. It is legally forbidden from being uh sold or bought. Uh you can only gift it. Um >> do you have that in the collection? H >> you have
>> I wish uh um art and portrait medals uh for people other than emperors u are fairly recent uh uh invention and it started in Italy by an artist called Pisanelo
um and uh he created the the first medals with portraits of non-ruling people uh You can imagine how unpopular that was with ruling people before. Uh when somebody commissioned a medal with
their face on it, the question would come up, do you have ambitions? Right? Uh so that's why uh it started fairly late in the Renaissance u to have what we call today art medals.
Metals very very importantly are not currency which means that totally different rules regarding reproduction apply to them. You must not reproduce currency if I can state the obvious. Uh you go to jail for that. Uh a metal
typically anybody can reproduce if they want to. They might run a foul of copyright laws but that's it. And uh then metals can be made in many different ways. They can be struck, which basically means you take a a
little brown piece of metal and you hammer it. Um or they can be cast, which means that you have a a gap in some sand and you pour molten metal into it. Or they can even be assembled from parts.
It's called 250 years of American history. But of course, American history starts before 1776, so we have to spend a little bit of time on that. The first thing I want to show you is a
Massachusetts Bay Colony Pine Tree Shilling. And you see the date here, 1652. That's actually the date that the Massachusetts Bay Colony government uh decided to authorize a silver smith by
the name of Hull uh to create currency. There was a chronic currency shortage in the colonies because uh the colonies were exporting raw materials and they had to buy very expensively every manufactured good from England. So all
the currency was flowing to England and nothing was coming back. Um so uh this was prohibited by law. So in in 1682 the king actually forbade uh the the striking of currency and in uh
84 he revoked the charter. The first British American medal is a Quaker medal that goes back to the uh French Indian War. The Quakers in Philadelphia had strong
business interests and of course they were opposed to waging war. Uh so they were negotiating a peace with the Indian tribes and in 1757 they were successful in uh negotiating a
deal with I think 13 tribes which pacified the entire Ohio Valley. and they commissioned this medal that was struck just to complicate things on a Spanish coin. uh the
uh the Spanish pieces of eight, the real uh was the de facto currency all over the world. And uh that's because they had the silver mines in South America. And uh uh so when you needed to strike a
medal or do something, you typically started out with some Spanish currency and did with it whatever you wanted to do. So that was King George on the That was King George. >> That's King George II. Yeah.
>> Uh that brings us to the Revolutionary War. The shortage of currency was one of the reasons that it happened. Um the first real American medal, American American medal was struck in Paris.
Um, Benjamin Franklin was the ambassador to France and he commissioned uh a medal to celebrate the victory at Yorktown uh from the uh French artist Agusto.
And what you see here, this is one of the holy grails for an American metal collector. U they're very rare in their early form. Um and uh they're very beautiful. you see the iconography of
the uh of the medalist. So here you have uh Colombia or America represented by the the woman with flowing hair and she has the Friian cap behind her which is the symbol uh the age-old symbol for
manumission for being freed from from cattle slavery. And on the back you have the baby America Heraclus fighting two snakes. The British lion attacking
and France uh in the form of Athena or Manurva here with the shield having the three flur dei the symbol for France defending the babe. The Latin description says even the courage courageous babe uh sometimes
needs the help of the gods. Uh France of course being the goddess here. >> How many of those were >> very rare particularly in silver? I think there are 13 uh exemplars in silver. Franklin was using them as uh
diplomatic tools. Uh he was sending them to ambassadors all over the world and to congressmen at home. um and uh uh there are later rest strikes that are less expensive and less valuable.
Then we skip quite a few decades where a lot happened. We had the War of 1812. We had uh uh we had the Louisiana Purchase. We have all kinds of events in American history that do not get strongly
represented in medals. uh later on they did to be celebrated but not and not so much at the time. Um I picked the temperance movement because it started in all fours in the 1820s and it continues to today. Um the uh temperance
movement was a moral movement, a religious movement but also based on a real problem. uh heavy hard liquor had become very very cheap and that meant that there were a lot of
drunks and productivity was actually being negatively affected in the nation. Lots of accidents, lots of violence and that that's the a real practical cause for the movement. Um this is the kind of medal that was
used to drive the message home. This is signed down here by James Madison and Andrew Jackson. So they were proponents for staying away from liquor, hard liquor, because it really hurts.
Another thing that we still experience today, um it there's no starting point and no end point for it, nivism. What you see here is a cartoon that shows a
a German represented by logger beer and an Irishman represented by Irish whiskey running away with a ballot box and in back you have a riot scene at at the poll station. This was uh the predominant sentiment um uh when there
was a big wave of German and Irish immigration into the country and they were largely Catholic. So uh the big fear was that Catholicism would start dominating the country and that led to a
wave of enmity towards foreigners. I picked a medal from the 50s um uh to represent that. Edwin Forest was America's first great Shakespeare actor. Shakespeare acting was dominated
completely by the British. Uh if you went to theater in New York or in San Francisco, it was all British actors on stage and was deeply resented by Americans. Uh it was not that long after the uh uh the war of 1812. Feelings
towards the British were still very negative. And there were theater riots all the time. Anyway, people chose the theater to write over over issue, not over the play itself or over their disappointment with the actors. Uh Edwin
Forest was celebrated American actor. He went to London to perform there and he felt slighted by McRdi the dominant British actor um uh who he accused of laughing throughout his performance. So when McGreddy came to America to perform
there, uh, Forest and his friends laughed and and rioted throughout the entire performance and, uh, it escalated to the point where about 10,000 people
were on the street and were clashing with the National Guard uh, which fired a volley into the mass and about 30 people died and over 100 were injured. Um, so so much for the
good old days. This is called the Astrop Park riot. The Civil War. You see here the the leading figures on the political and on the military side, uh, Lincoln, Davis,
uh, Grant and Lee. Um, I chose to represent it by two medals. one from much earlier and one from much later. The earlier one is another message metal. This is very typical of the early days of metals. Uh they're not very
artistic. Part of it has to do with the fact that you had to engrave it into the die um directly at detail. Uh very few people had the skill to do real quality work. They're relatively simple. Um but
uh this is based on a popular British uh design um which uh they all look the same u uh some have women uh some have men on them uh but the sentiment is very clear. Um,
the much later one that I picked celebrates Lincoln's birthday in 1909, who preserved the Union over the war that was at least partially caused by the battle over slavery. Uh, here you see again the the beautiful iconography
on the metal. You have the rock with the eagle perching. of the sun shining down over it and the the the angry ocean uh fighting up against the uh uh the rock in um uh in the storm. Um I picked this
one partially because uh it might look familiar to you. Uh you might have seen this portrait on something more current which was just recently in the news because they're not made anymore. Uh,
pennies are gone. Uh, the last 212 were auctioned off recently for insane amounts of money. I think uh brought $18 million. Um, and uh so this is it uh for uh for the
penny. uh they were designed by Victor David Brener who was a fabulous artist daer of that time around the turn of the century the same time
uh end of the 19th century America is really becoming a powerful nation and starts asserting itself in the world and they host the Colombian exposition the world expos exposition in Chicago And it's really a showcase for American
industry, American art. Uh they pulled out all the stops. They built a giant ferris wheel that uh rivaled the Eiffel Tower in size. Um and uh they built this uh uh out of nothing. They built this
this park with beautiful architecture and art. All the leading artists were involved in it. Um Augustus St. Goddens um who is one of the most famous sculptors of America was commissioned to
design the award medal for uh uh for the exhibition and uh the design for the reverse of the medal actually was rejected. Um that was an early culture war. Um he had been trained in Paris where new
depictions were no big deal. In America, it was still a pretty big deal. Uh, so a fully frontal nude male was unacceptable on an official medal. Um, part of it had to do with the chief of the US Mint who
was really fighting to have that commission himself and there's a theory that he torpedoed the design actively and he was actually awarded the design for the reverse. So uh it is muled in in
the front has St. Godden's original design and this exists I think in three copies one of which is in private hands unfortunately not mine. Um St. Goddens only did one more commission
for the mint uh because he was so disenchanted by that entire experience, he created what's commonly referred to as the most beautiful coin, US coin uh the double eagle. Um and uh you you see
uh Colombia here uh uh with the uh the torch of liberty and the outreached olive branch here. And of course the eagle that that uh before the uh uh the
rising sun uh on the reverse. Uh it is a beautiful metal uh coin. Sorry. Um this was the director's medal for the Colombian exposition designed by Eliu Veter uh who only did this one medal and
you see the uh restriction for on nudity for the female figure was no problem. So uh uh this is a a beautiful medal full of symbolism. Uh he was a was a symbolist painter at the time. uh and
there are so many details hidden in that medal uh that uh that would take forever to explain. And then we get to World War I where America really enters the world stage. Um
why did America enter? Well, there were two drivers. Uh one is the sinking of the Lucatania. uh one story. This is a medal designed by Carl Guts who was a famous German uh metal artist who commented on everything
that was happening in the world. I mean if it involved German politics, he would have a medal out 5 days afterwards. Uh he created hundreds and hundreds of medals very quickly, including one about the sinking of the Lucitana. Here you
you see the Kunard sales office with a skeleton in the booth. Uh above uh business overall over everything. And uh here the story u uh no banned goods uh
and then the description with and this caused no ends of of trouble an incorrect date. He actually got the date wrong and picked a date that was two days before the actual sinking >> which led to the theory worldwide that
the Germans had planned the sinking of this ship which among other things killed a thousand people among them 100 Americans. So that that caused a great amount of grief in the states. Uh even more so then came the Zimmerman telegram
which was Germans offer to Mexico to give them California and Texas if they helped them in the war. Uh so uh that led to a huge swing in public opinion away from staying on this side of the
Atlantic and uh pro- interfering. America finally entered April 6th, 1917. This is the Declaration of War Medal issued by the American Numismatic Society in celebration. The whole country was gung-ho. We're we're finally
going to war on the right side. And uh this medal was actually sent to Persing when he was already in the field and Persing said, "I I well like it." Uh so um um that uh it's a beautifully
designed uh metal with a very unusual eagle u that you don't often see in this form on metals. The Germans uh had a very different opinion of that thing. This is a metal designed by the German artist Ludwick Geese which shows the
American Easter Bunny uh eating lots of coins. um and bearing lots of weapons. Um and uh so you can see the propaganda war,
the uh the uh the different attitudes towards the American involvement of course on the two sides. >> On the American side, the war was very popular. Um uh it was unusual at the time. Williams
was was groundbreaking in this. Uh they created a medal that they awarded to every Williams alum who fought in the war. It's the Williams medal. It has the uh Ephraim Williams on the reverse here writing on uh at the Battle of Lake
George. uh slightly anacronistic uh but it has a stunningly um uh current depiction of war on the obverse on the front. Up to that point,
war medals had been the angel of death hovering over a battlefield and uh the shrouded or the the crying mother, you know, the the uh the old uh romantic uh and and classical uh uh symbol. He
picked soldiers going over the top, you know, and uh uh very unusual. Um uh you can see how how modernism modern age u uh starts taking a root on metals.
This was inspired by Carl Guts uh because Paul Manship, one of the most famous American artists, got so fed up with the propaganda medals by Carl Guts that he made one himself for the other
side. Um, so, uh, here on the front you see the the ugly German pickle helmet soldier carrying away the Belgian maiden, stepping over the bodies of babes and the inscription says culur in
Belgium. Uh, and on the back you have the emperor wearing a necklace of skulls. Um, and uh the inscription, the foe of free people. Um, so the uh uh I have to consult my
notes for this one. The American Magazine of Art wrote in 1918, "In some of the shop windows on Fifth Avenue, New York, is now to be seen a bronze medal designed and executed by Paul Manship, representing the outrages
perpetrated by the German army upon women and children in invaded territory, particularly in Belgium. This is offered for sale at $10 a piece and puts into permanent form those things which if possible should not be remembered but if remembered not
visualized. >> So this was not necessarily wellreceived at the time but it very strongly represented the emotions at the time. >> In these cases now are we still like in
coin dimensions are much larger usually between two and three inches. How many were made and how were they were they given to people or >> those were for sale. Um they were you know he would he would have he would
order a certain run made if they were popular he would order some more >> and then they were sold in stores and uh maybe he gave some away to friends. Um but uh uh they cost a lot of money to
produce. Uh it's not easy. Eventually the war ended 1919 and we get to the time between the wars which is really the golden age for medals in America. Um uh it's a happening time uh 1919 to39.
Um uh in art history you call it the machine age. You can call it streamline modern. There there are many names for it. Uh machine age was a a belief that things were finally getting better. Um that uh we were coming out of the dark
times and science at technology were helping us fix our problems. Um skyscrapers were being built. Um it was a a happening time. Uh I picked this medal uh not because it's hugely
beautiful or or unusual but because it has an impact on current affairs. This was a very controversial medal. This is designed by Laura Garden Fraser and she was the first woman to ever design a US
coin, maybe any coin. Um and uh uh she did it uh with minimal guidance and uh she was told what to put on it and uh completed the design in three months. What was controversial about it is that
it has the first governor of Alabama and the current governor of Alabama on it. The then alive uh which was thought to be against the law. Uh, America had a law that prohibited the use of living
people on currency. Turned out that it was interpreted to only apply to banknotes, not to coins. Uh, and you might already have an idea why I have that in here because we're looking at a very similar discussion
right now. Um, but u I'll get to that at the end. George Lindberg happened. That was probably one of the huge uh events of the 20s. He became a worldwide celebrity uh celebrated by millions of people in
in both on both continents. Um he was awarded a congressional medal. Again, Laura Garden Fraser designed it. Um and uh he was often referred to as the eagle. So his representation is always the eagle.
Um, the Lone Eagle Medal was published four years after his flight and it's a beautiful art medal. Uh, this is what I would call you can probably tell a difference here. This is uh this is
sculpture now. You know, this is uh uh you have the heroic pose of course on the on the front, but on the back you have the eagle almost hidden by the raging winds from below that are blowing
against him, by the thunder wielding uh gods throwing down lightning from above and by death chasing him. You know, that's the it's just a spectacular design. Um, and it was called the Lone Eagle Medal.
I picked this medal to represent the depression. Um, the American Bar Association issued this medal uh uh to uh award a uh the leading
uh lawyer every every year. And their goal was according to the the documents associated with the medal to award the most valuable medal in pure gold um that was being awarded anywhere.
Well, that was in September 1929 and the depression came and the medal never got awarded in pure gold. Uh the only exemplars that I found are guilt. You know, they're bronze with a thin layer of gold because they just the
endowment that they had for it just couldn't pay for the gold. >> Again, Laura Garden Fraser, the the artist, and she had quite some a sense of humor. She created an alternate design that replaces just ustitzia with
peanuts and the scales of justice have a balanced elephant and a mouse on it. >> 1930 uh is still the height of prohibition. Prohibition was enacted in 1919
and went ran till 1933. Um, but this medal depicts public attitude. It's called All Hail Dionis. Uh, and it celebrates the Greek god of wine. Um, and it was very controversial
at the time, uh, because it it poked fun at prohibition essentially, but it sold 3,000 copies, so who's to complain? Uh, this is one of my favorite medallic objects, the Kingfish Medal. Uh uh Huie
Long was a Louisiana politician um governor from 28 to 32 and then presidential candidate and he got assassinated in 1935. But in between in 1933, he visited New
York for a campaign event and got terribly drunk and in the bathroom uh urinated over his neighbor's leg and his neighbor decked him and uh got sued by
Huie Long in court. And a writer uh who wrote up the entire incident said, "This guy shouldn't get sued. he should get a medal uh for for decking Huie Long. And uh some artist, it's probably George Settler, GZ, but I'm not sure about it,
uh designed this metal that shows the fist striking the kingfish, uh the crown flying off his head. And of course, the entire metal is toilet shaped, right? Um, and the Latin inscription says for
public service in private location. This is one of the most iconic medals from this time. Uh, the General Motors 25th anniversary medal. Uh, it's pure American art deco streamline modern. Um,
and uh, it's probably one of my all-time favorite medals. Who designed it? >> Uh, it was designed by Norman Belgettis, uh, who was the big name and it was executed by Renee Jean Balon, um, and
one other, uh, Richard Loey, I think. I'm not sure. >> Deco style art deco kind of style. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Were those issued in large quantity? Because it was a corporation. Were those
issued in large quantity? Oh, uh, corporations issued medals as a matter of course. I mean, the, uh, uh, NBC, uh, issued a medal. CBS issued a medal. All these, all these corporations hired the
best artists that they could find and celebrated their 10th, 15th, 25th, 50th anniversary. It was just a totally different culture. It was part part of the world uh, at that time. Unfortunately, all good things come to
an end. World War II started and that was a very different affair. Uh, America had lost 115,000 soldiers to World War I. Uh, there was not a great appetite to go to war, but of course it was provoked and eventually
America had to. And uh this is a not many medals made at not like World War I in any way. Uh but uh this is probably the most iconic
victory medal. Uh it uses Churchill's quote for conquer we must. Um and then u in triumph shall wait the uh uh the iconic scene from Awima. Um it
The attitude only half a year later was already very different. All right. Uh what we see here, world unity or oblivion. Uh we have the American GI giving sucker to
his uh uh injured enemy. Uh world unity and of course the spectre of nuclear annihilation with a field of bodies uh below. Um, and that was a very realistic fear in 1945. The the nuclear bomb had
guaranteed victory, but now it was threatening everybody. And then of course the Cold War started right afterwards. Um, we uh it's typically I mean I lived through it uh at least parts of it and we all
thought we were done with it in 1991 but it was not to be. Uh uh you see here at the top the uh the the the border being established between East and West Germany with people trying to get through the barbed wire. Um and here of
course the evacuation from Saigon. Uh uh this is a medal by a German artist that and interestingly enough the son of Carl Guts the uh the the German artist who caused all this trouble uh about the
Berlin airlift uh I don't know how many of you are familiar with it but America basically supplied West Berlin uh for almost a year through the air when the Russians blockaded it uh because they tried to basically get the entire city
which was surrounded by East Germany and they just closed all the all the borders and it was a very tough winter, a cold winter and uh American and British bombers flew in coal and all the all the coal and all the food to supply the
former German capital uh for an entire year and finally the Russians gave up and you you see here uh the Germans called them the raisin bombers. uh with all the packages being unloaded and here you see Stalin uh sitting
underneath while the airbridge goes above and then of course uh we start seeing the real uh approach of what's called the the wish for everlasting peace. You know the war to
end all wars had happened. Now let's make it happen. Pieces is life wars. That very powerful uh medal beautifully executed by Ceil Howard. 1972 we have uh a journey for peace with Nixon traveling to China.
Um that's one side. Robert Julian created a very different medal in 1977. He created five satirical medals about American politics. And this is the Nixon one, the double standard,
where we see all the scandals around and some of them with uh uh the eyes firmly closed and some of them with the eyes firmly open. Um and uh uh so political commentary was still happening on in
medallic form. And that leads us all the way to the end. Uh there was not much art going on anymore after this instruct medals after the 70s. The bicesentennial was kind of the last big hurray uh where
uh so much really schlocky art got pushed out. Franklin mint was a thing and they pushed out metal after metal after metal of dubious artistic quality and u uh artists continued making metals
but they made them as cast metals in very very small series. A a struck metal you put all the work in the die and then you can stamp out lots of metals relatively cheaply. Cast metals cost a lot per piece. Um, and so typically
those were only made in small series of 30 or 50 metals. Um, and only some collectors have them and they're mostly unknown. So, we're trying to revive this uh again uh in its old form at the
American Numismatic Society. We're planning to issue a medal in this year, the semiquincentennial medal. And I want to take you through the process a little bit. We we did a uh a design uh competition where we recruited artists
and we're paying them for a design whether we use it or not. And then we picked one artist and that was the design that won. Um you have here uh an American. We all thought it was a Native American, but the artist told us that
was actually unintentional. Um and he carries a sheath of wheat and a hammer. And in the background the anvil that is uh America pursuit of happiness through industry through
commerce. Um and on the reverse you have the Mustangs uh symbolizing the the the the the battle for freedom, the drive for freedom. And we had several objections to the design. In g we liked it enough
that we picked the artist, but we said um do some rework. And then he sent us a second design which uh he said is more a liberty an unusual liberty and we said we like the first idea somewhat better.
So this is what we are where we are right now. Uh this is probably the medal that's close to what we will issue the third design. We again we have uh America um but this time with gear wheels and a dial. This represents both
industry and the passage of time. And on the back we have much more emphasized the the the the image rather than text. Um we want the symbolism and not the description. Um uh and uh we
hope that this medal will be ready uh in July and uh it will be the 69th medal I think that the ANS issues. Um so I hope that it fits in well with all the other beautiful medals. And that brings me to
the end of my presentation. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Feel free to ask questions. Any questions? Did anyone bring a medal to to show? >> We're supposed to require
>> Did you bring one? >> What was the market? Who were they aiming to bring these bills to? So, uh, think about a world fair where people come to your house or your stand or to, uh, you
know, fairs were a big thing and executives would hand out medals to their important business friends. Um the they usually got made in series of a couple hundred 300 and then uh uh if if
sometimes if they commemorated an event like a Lindberg medal, Lindberg got feeded by everybody. I mean he toured the nation and he went from dinner to dinner to dinner to dinner in every city. the the town chamber of commerce
and the city council wanted to host him and they had a hosting committee that that uh chipped in money and organized everything. And typically the hosting committee would get a medal in silver, everyone on the committee and everybody
who paid the entry got the medal in bronze. And that was that was the way it was done. You know, it was a night it was the trinket, the swag that you took away from an event and it was the handout to a business friend.
>> The early American medals that you showed, Alex, what what did folks do when they own those? Did they display them in their homes? Did they lock them away? >> A lot of them are squirreled away. Um the and which is a good thing and a bad
thing. I mean, the uh I hate the museums in this country that have hordes and hordes of beautiful metals and nobody sees them because they're well, let's face it, do people go to a museum for a medal or for a piece of beautiful
painting that hangs on the wall and is much more accessible. Um uh but they could do a better job in in rotating them through chests of drawers where you can pull them out and look at them with a nice glass cover for security but they
don't. Um the uh in private hands u uh more and more they're being slabbed which I hate. uh slab means they get encased in a plastic holder uh and they have a a a grading associated with them
because of course Americans love statistics and uh clearly a metal with a grade of 68 is much better than a metal with a grade of 67. Uh and uh it it means a can mean a huge
price difference in coins. It can mean tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in in price difference. >> So they're putting them in the acrylic. Does that does that >> not not not poured, but but uh but cases, you know, that that have to be destroyed to open. So there's some some
security. It makes for nice storage. They're protected, but I hate that you can't touch them anymore. You always look at the plastic. It's uh not my thing. But a lot of them have been damaged because they were put in a drawer and then each time the drawer
gets opened it rubs over the over the surface and you get rubbing damage or dings into something else made of metal. Um and it gets it gets little nicks and uh that can really detract from the value.
>> Where where were most of them made? Okay. >> So the predominant maker in America was the Medallic Art Company uh which was started by two French brothers who immigrated to America and introduced the
Jeanvier machine which was the revolution in metal making. I told you up to that point people had to engrave everything with the you know with the uh uh uh with the monle uh uh looking at every fine detail in negative. Right. I
mean, everything that's raised on the metal has to be dug out of the dye. Uh, so you're working not just mirrored and negative, you're working in the finest detail. And, uh, that kind of limited
what you could do. And then, uh, an engineer by the name of Jean Vier in in France developed a machine that could actually create reductions, faithful reductions. Uh so artists could work in 12inch
uh plasters and then they used a they they grew a galvano shell which is a metal shell that uh that that you put on that you grow on the plaster and uh and that met metal shell could then be
scanned by a needle that uh traced a spiral over it and engraved it directly into a smaller die >> almost like 3D printing. So yeah, so all of a sudden you could have a really detailed design made in large and have
it represented in a small metal and that that was really revolutionary and that came in 1907 to this country. >> Do you want do you did you bring a medal? >> Yeah, those medals >> um
>> we'll do a quick show and tell >> something to brought my uh grandfather's World War II victory medal. >> Oh yes. >> For the European campaign. >> Yeah. >> I I think that one was designed by James
Earl Fraser if I remember it correctly. >> And my great-grandfather's World War I victory medal. >> Wow. >> France. And then what you alluded to, I've got medals I earn in the military, like like 10 air medals. I can't find any because they're all in a drawer somewhere.
>> Yep. There you go. What I recommend if you if you want to do your great grandchildren a favor. Uh buy some uh some sle uh flip sleeves and just put them in. That prevents the majority of the damage and you can just keep them in
the drawer that way. A lot of these things are not important in real time and they become important as time goes on. >> And and and it's funny, you know, the the the it doesn't have to be regarded as valuable at the time. Uh some of the uh
what's called store tokens or uh I mean there are there are categories of of coin and metal collectibles that are really funny. For example, some people collect wh house tokens. Some people collect Kulux Clan tokens.
Some people collect vigilante tokens. Um, there are all kinds of of different topics that people collect. And they're not always beautiful. It's just that they're rare. So few of them survive. I mean, which family kept the Klux Clan
thing of their grandfather or something around, right? And they probably tossed it. So, the ones that still exist can be very valuable to people who care about the thing. >> And I brought this, but I don't know what it is. I I have a lot of old
things. Some of it was far foreign, but >> All right. That's Washington. Take a light. That's grass. See if I stumped him. >> Where did it come from? Is it >> It's mine. >> Well, I I don't know. It's was in my
father's stuff. I a lot of foreign Most of it is foreign, but that said US Mint on it from the wars. >> I don't know. I I mean there there are so many little medals with Washington's head on them. >> Yeah. >> Uh I would have to look that up.
>> Uh if you want to, you can send me u uh photos and I'll I'll take a look at it. Um you know, the the the portrait is is common. It it's usually the reverse that u uh that distinguishes them from each other. Uh because they, you know, they
they had something that looked nice on the front, they reused it and then they just put a different message on the back. >> Yeah. It says something about >> oath. Oath of Yeah. >> Yeah. Cool. >> I like it.
>> And um my family, a lot of them uh work for Boeing and they give out a metal like a little thing each year. >> Still do that. >> Yep. What got you interested? Was it the history, the art, the >> uh what got me interested was a
particular one medal of a particular art medal series uh that was on display in the Yale University art gallery and I had seen it twice and each time I thought, "Wow, this is so beautiful. It's a art deco and uh that really talks
to me." And then my wife and I went to a furniture auction and found a little display case that had that metal in it. And uh that's what got me started. >> Where have you found most of your medals? >> eBay.
>> Oh, really? And then and then when I got really into it, I started going to uh auction websites that specialize on metals. But uh eBay was the eBay is the place where most of the metals u still
trade >> and what pricing wise what are they going for? Oh, I mean the the General Motors uh the beautiful Arde Deco metal if you want that in in perfect condition without rubs on the high point uh where
the the bronze shows through. I mean it you can really tell if it's perfect or not that uh people care about that. Um that's probably $1,200. >> Um and no material value. It's bronze,
you know, with a a very tiny layer of silver on top of it. >> Silver alone, an ounce of silver is now over $100 >> and climbing. >> Yeah. So, if you have a 3 in silver metal, it probably weighs at least four
or five ounces. So, you have $500 in silver value alone. >> Uh, and that's not even counting the rarity. Uh, let's not talk about gold, right? Um, and uh, uh, so for example,
the the the tree shilling that I had in there, >> that particular one is very rare and sold for almost $19,000. Uh, nice, not so rare tree shillings. They made oak shillings, pine shilling,
willow shillings, all kinds of different trees. Uh, $2,000, $3,000. Um uh some of the art medals that I like in bronze $20, $30. Some of them they want
$100,1 150 if they're very rare, very appealing by a great artist or something. But >> is there a lot of concern for fragile metals? >> Not in medals so much uh or I should say topically peace metals. uh we didn't go
into that too much but peace medals continued for a century uh uh the in the early days it was George II on the on the medal once we had presidents every president's uh face
was put on the peace medal and they kept making treaties with with American native American tribes so each chief got a medal handed for every treaty um or if if somebody wanted something from them
and uh the original ones highly valuable and very difficult to collect legally because most of the metals that are in the market are the result of grave robberies.
Uh so museums for example can only own them if their provenence is established back two centuries. you know like uh a famous numismatist from the 18th century already had it in his collection and uh
he said I got it from this chief as a present or I you know when I traveled here and these are incredibly valuable um and because they're so collectible and relatively easy to reproduce they're
many of them are not terribly elaborate artistically. Uh there are there are fakes. They early fakes even even fakes can be collected in uh in what I collect the 20th century.
I just started seeing the first really really bad fakes this year 2025. Um they are clearly made in China. Uh they only follow the design kind of. You can really tell that it's a different thing.
Uh but they claim on eBay that it's the same thing. Uh which which to anybody with eyes it's not. So they're bad fakes. Um it's still a safe sector which is what I like about it. Coins a very different thing.
>> Alex, did they um strike medals for you know notable deaths or assassinations? Thinking of Lincoln. So the US Mint still has a very active metal program which is a total mess. Um
the always has been the US Mint has been one of the more dysfunctional governments uh in US uh history. Um the uh >> competition. >> Yes. Uh but um
uh so I promised you uh to to say a word or two about the the the Trump coin or Trump medal. Um, I mean, the the the chief criticism was it's not legal. Uh, no, it in fact is legal. Uh, it's just a
terribly bad idea. Um, we have a history, an intentional history of avoiding the depiction of living politicians on on species on on on coins or or metals. We wait till they're dead
typically. uh and that has been the intentional policy of the nation for since its founding. Um and uh to to break with this tradition is not great but it it is legal. Uh so
there are steps involved when you create a coin or a medal these days and you're the government. You need to seek the advice of the um uh the National Arts Commission. Um which of course can be disbanded and
repopulated at the president's will. Um, and you there's something called the citizens, uh, coin advisory committee, uh, the CCAC, um, which has a a rotating appointment schedule. So that's not as easy to get
rid of, but they also have no real power. They just make a recommendation. Um and what comes out of this entire process where the government and the guidance from up high is give me this kind of thing. Uh and then the
committees get involved and say yeah but it has to be strikable. It has to lie flat because it's a coin. Uh you know the these often don't lie flat, right? They're pieces of art that kind of wobble a little when you when you lay them down. A coin has to lie flat when
you put it on a table. uh it must not catch on anything when you put it in a slot and and all these requirements. Um and what comes out of this entire design process is usually second rate art. Um
in my opinion now highly collectible second grade art but still second rate art. And uh also the US Mint rarely hires the best engravers. Um, so h >> why is that? It's a government >> government and and they can't afford it.
They can't they can't afford them. I mean, they're on a government payment schedule. A really great artist can make much more money not working for the mint. I mean, you do you want to work for the government when you're an artist, you know, that's the the the question.
>> Um, and and you might say yes until you give them your best and most beautiful design and they say, "Yeah, nah." uh you know we really need this and that and that and we can't have that and you can't have that on the on the coin because of politics and then you say
okay I'm done with this what what Augustus St. audenced it after they nixed his reverse for the award medal. You know, he said, "I'm not never working for the government again. Uh, I don't have to." >> You didn't have a picture of what the
actual one >> I realized that as I was going through the presentation. I said, "Why didn't I have to transition to what they did?" But I can show that to you. >> Do these start I assume they start off as sketches and H. Yes.
Are there sketches around it? >> So, so yes, I I own some of the sketches what I have here, but there's a little bit of advertisement for the metal. Uh, but here you see the uh what what I showed on the screen. Uh the design,
this is what he started out with. You might have noticed the first design was not a drawing. That was an actual plaster. uh he actually submitted a plaster model to us uh which if we had gone with it it would have saved him an
additional step. He would already have delivered what is actually the second deliverable in the process. Um but typically you start out with a drawing you that's when the commissioner who who wants a particular thing. So, for
example, for us, the Native American, which is actually not a Native American, uh, but I think you can see why we thought that it was a Native American, right? >> Uh, our opinion was okay. the the the
the message of the fir of the of the of verse here is pursuit of happiness through wealth through industry and you have a Native American representing that there's probably not a group in this
country who has been more disadvantaged in terms of wealth and so we could see we're in the middle of a fundraising campaign that's where we said that could cause trouble for us right so can you make that less Native American looking and that's where where so there there
are and he had absolutely no issue because for him it wasn't a Native American you know if if he had been an artist who says and I want a Native American representing America on this medal that would have been a huge issue and we might have said okay you know go with it but uh but he had absolutely no
issue with that um so there's a a give and take and you want to be respect respectful of the artistic vision, but you also have your needs. I mean, you're doing a medal for a reason. Sometimes the reason is I want something beautiful, but sometimes the reason is
I'm celebrating something. I'm commemorating something and the message has to has to be proper. Are there a lot of people still collecting or I mean collecting is kind of taking a big hit. >> Um I I would say it's a
it's not that I know everybody but it's a fairly uh intimate circle I would say. um the um all the collecting fields, the traditional collecting fields, stamp collecting, coin collecting, they're all
facing pressure um uh with uh with youth. Um actually some promising signals. I was at a at a at a coin show in New York. The actually I was at an afterparty of an auction house at the show and I
thought, okay, this is going to be the most boring thing ever. there will be people, men my age, sitting around a table nursing a beer or something. It was a happening scene with young people and uh I had no idea. Totally unexpected. Um so who knows? But uh in
general it's a lot of old males. >> What should he pennies? >> What >> what should we do with our pennies? uh keep them if they're uh if they're in good shape. Um coins quality matters so
tremendously. Um if you have a rotten penny uh worn off uh dinged, it's worth a penny. Um if you if you have one in really good shape, keep it protected. And
for you it might be worth a dollar, but for your child or grandchild it might one day be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. >> Good advice. Okay. Even a new one like a a new shiny one like
>> particularly those. Particularly those. >> Oh >> yeah. >> No. See this is what happens. Everybody spends them or gives them away is because a penny isn't worth it. There's so many of them. Everybody does that. It's 50 years later that people say,
"Oh, I wish I had kept that. >> Can we take a peek here? >> H >> I was going to ask if we could take a look at what you >> Yeah, please come up. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you." >> And the Rob's company. Yeah. And they
they typically go between $50 and $150. Um this is an unusually attractive US mint medal. >> Uh polar exploration. >> Oh my goodness. Um >> does it have a particular explore or just
>> Yes, it uh is clearly >> for his courageous sagacity and perseverance in the trans polar flight in the derigible Nord.
Uh and uh Lincoln Ellsworth, which is very interesting. >> I know the UK used to give out the polar medal. Anybody that was on a significant expedition is the same application there. Like the general public couldn't buy that. Only had to be
>> This one I brought back from uh I had that at the at the at the fair. >> Uh this is by a Massachusetts artist by the name of Don, Cyrus Don. Uh there's a museum in Arlington, I think. uh and he was a huge archery fan and
designed all the award medals for the national archery uh competitions. >> Um this is by a young uh Japanese artist and it stretches the definition of metal but technically this is a metal and that
that's what I would call an assembled metal. You see >> uh that she started out with just copper wire and wound it into a nest and then created the flowers on top of it. Right. Um that's
>> I would say I would call that a little decorative sculpture. Uh but >> interesting >> it is sold it was sold in a metal store by a medalist by and people refer to it as a medal >> and that was commemorating an art
exhibition Frank Stella at the uh Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts. >> Yeah. So anyway, >> so uh yeah, >> all kinds of different purposes. So I'm reading this more carefully. It says here the dye. So, it's going to be made
from a dye, right? >> Yeah. >> Because the casting would be very expensive, right? And we could never get for large numbers. >> Right. Right. >> Alex, thank you. This is really fun. >> Very welcome.
>> Yeah. Very interesting. Thank you. Very good. You get to learn so much in the process of history. You might sitt