Posted 11/29/2012 12:39 pm
As you noted, what you have is a medal. Medals are just one of the many numismatic items that fall under the category of "exonumia." Numismatic collectibles such as tokens, badges, wooden nickels and hobo nickels (to name a few) also fit into this category.
So, your medal is a piece of exonumia. It happens to be silver and likely not worth much more than its silver melt value (unless you find the "right" baseball fan that collects exonumia!) but it was struck as a commemorative medal to mark the career accomplishments of Mark McGwire.
If it were struck as a bullion piece, it would feature its silver weight and fineness as part of the inscriptions on either the obverse or reverse so as to make its bullion content clear.
Hope that helps!
So, your medal is a piece of exonumia. It happens to be silver and likely not worth much more than its silver melt value (unless you find the "right" baseball fan that collects exonumia!) but it was struck as a commemorative medal to mark the career accomplishments of Mark McGwire.
If it were struck as a bullion piece, it would feature its silver weight and fineness as part of the inscriptions on either the obverse or reverse so as to make its bullion content clear.
Hope that helps!
Collecting history one coin or medal at a time! (c) commems. All rights reserved.
