Commems Collection Modern: What If? 1976 Nevada Bicentennial Commission - Congress

This is one of the more unusual "What If?" medal bills that I've covered here on CCF. The bill didn't call for the striking of any medals by the US Mint, but rather that "medallions struck on the reactivated Carson City dollar press by the Nevada American Revolution Bicentennial Commission shall be national commemorative medals."

I believe some context is in order...

The "Carson City dollar press" referenced by the bill is a former US Mint (at Carson City, Nevada) press that was used to strike a variety of coin denominations; it currently resides in the Nevada State Museum in Carson City and is used to strike commemorative/souvenir medals. The press is often referred to as "Coin Press No. 1", a reference to its distinction of being the first coin press at the Carson City Mint (and only press from 1870-1874 - additional presses were later added).

"National Commemorative Medal" is a designation established in the Coin Act of 1873. The Act authorized the US Mint to strike medals "of a national character" as long as their striking "did not interfere with the regular coinage operations, and that no private medal dies shall be prepared at said mint, or the machinery or apparatus thereof be used for that purpose." Effectively, only the US Mint was to strike "national" medals.

So, getting a "National Commemorative Medal" designation for a privately-struck medal was a big "Ask" by the Nevada American Revolution Bicentennial Commission.

The bill calling for such was introduced in the House of Representatives by James David Santini (D-NV) in June 1975 (94th Congress). As noted above, the bill DID NOT request any medals to be struck by the US Mint. Upon its introduction, the bill was referred to the House Committee on Banking, Currency and Housing.

The bill included details regarding the designs that were to appear on a privately-struck medal. The obverse was to feature "the Nevada Centennial design" and the reverse was to depict "the Nevada Bicentennial design." The Nevada Centennial design referenced appeared originally on a US Mint-struck medal for Nevada to help mark the US Centennial in 1876. The design has the Liberty Bell at center with two flanking soldiers. The Nevada Bicentennial design referred to the Commission's logo which features a pick, a shovel and a panning bowl/pan (alluding to Nevada's robust mining history (predominantly silver) - silver, gold and other minerals are still mined today in Nevada).

Note 1: the "Centennial" and "Bicentennial" references in the bill are in regards to the US National milestone anniversaries vs. Nevada State milestones.)

Note 2: I will discuss the medal designs and mintage figures in more details in a follow-up post that I am currently developing.

The bill did not get reported by the Committee, nor was it brought up for consideration by the House. Ultimately, copper, bronze, silver and gold medals were struck by the Nevada American Revolution Bicentennial Commission on Coin Press No. 1, but they were not classified as US National Commemorative Medals.

1976 US Bicentennial Medal of Nevada Bicentennial Commission




For other of my posts about commemorative coins and medals, see: Commems Collection.