A Continuing Thread ~ Post Your Tokens, Medals, Exonumia Acquisitions

** Exonumia **
Fantasy circulation Euro Tokens - Slovenia
2003 Specimen.
2 Euro.

The Panama-California Exposition was held in San Diego, California during 1915 and 1916 to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal. Although not as well-known as the Panama-Pacific Exposition held in San Francisco during 1915, the Panama-California Exposition was well attended. Official medals were produced for the exposition and struck at the United States Mint exhibit on the fair grounds. These official medals were designed by C.K. Berryman, then a cartoonist for the Washington Star, and were engraved by Charles Barber.
The medals feature the very popular obverse design of Uncle Sam with his shovel lying across the Panama Canal. The reverse design of the first ship to pass through the Panama Canal, the S.S. Ancon.
The 1916 dated medals from the Pan-CA Expo are considerably more rare than the 1915 dated examples.


(as usual, my image will appear nicer than this when I get a chance to take a better picture.)
There appears to be 6 variations known, all are 34mm.
Obv. Full figure of Uncle Sam part pick in right hand over right shoulder, shovel in left hand, two Continents in background and handle of shovel lies across Canal--all within center circle; outside around Panama California Exposition San Diego 1915.
Rev. Ship passing through Canal, above Official Souvenir; above around Panama Canal Opened by S.S. Ancon; below ship Aug. 15. 1914
HK-426 Silver.
HK-427 Bronze.
HK-428 Gilt.

Panama California Exposition San Diego 1916
HK-429 Silver-plate but Obv. date is 1916.
HK-430 Bronze, Obv. date 1916.
HK-431 Gilt, Obv. date 1916.

CIA special Government medal (sGm).

An alternative authorization mechanism was used to authorized the U.S. Mint to officially manufacture and legally issue this CIA sGm. Each sGm do not required an enacted U.S. Federal Law in order to be manufactured by the U.S. Mint.

CIA sGms (U.S. Mint type 1 and type 2) are hard to obtain since most are held by each original recipient's family as an heirloom.

Intelligence Medal of Merit The forth top ranking medal awarded by the CIA for the performance of especially meritorious service or for an act or achievement conspicuously above normal duties which has contributed significantly to the mission of the Agency.

Struck by the U.S. Mint. Obverse designed by Gilroy Roberts. Reverse designed by Frank Gasparro. The designers hallmarks can be seen (red arrow) on this sGm. This CIA sGm has the type 1 reverse. Awardee redacted for privacy.

Attributed as CIA-04-01 in the copyrighted paper: Ongoing Research of the U.S. Mint's Special Medals for U.S. Government Agencies (a.k.a. special Government medals), © 2018 The Numismatic Researcher. A total of six U.S. Government agencies have been identified with their own sGm series.

special Government medals (aka Special Medals for U.S. Government Agencies)

Image originally posted at https://www.money.org/collector/drd...-mint-medals




Image taken from my paper:

Very nice posting DrDarryl.

Great recent additions. Love the ships.

I couldn't pass up buying this second "nickel silver" version of

The Great Steamboat Race
Robert E. Lee vs Natchez

Minted in 1970 for the Steamship Historical Society of America
by The Franklin Mint

I had put together a set of three previously which I posted about here in these two posts. Other images are shown there of them.

http://goccf.com/t/301479&whichpage=11#2605131
and
http://goccf.com/t/301479&whichpage=12#2606872

There are only 500 minted of this Nickel Silver composition and now I have two of them. There were 2490 Bronze proofs and 7507 Sterling Silver Proofs as well. These Nickel versions are pretty scarce and not seen for sale very often.

( Only 498 to go! )



In the summer of 1870, Robert E. Lee won a famed steamboat race against Natchez, going from New Orleans to St. Louis, Missouri, a distance of 1,154 miles in 3 days, 18 hours and 14 minutes.
John W. Cannon, the captain of Robert E. Lee, ensured victory by removing excess weight, carrying only a few passengers, and using prearranged barges to increase the speed of refueling.

Natchez finished the race with the speed of 3 days, 21 hours and 58 minutes, but had been delayed by fog for six hours, and had numerous passengers to weigh it down.
Noted steamboat captain and historian Frederick Way, Jr., disputes this version of history somewhat. He cites Johnny Farrell, second engineer of Natchez: "This old idea about the two boats preparing for days for the race, tearing down bulkheads, putting up wind sheaves, and a lot of other stuff, is not true. When I went aboard Robert E. Lee, all they had done was to move the coal bunkers a little forward... On our boat there was absolutely no preparation whatever. There was no such thing as colors flying, bands playing, and the decks of both boats crowded with ladies and gentlemen."
Way also writes that at Vicksburg, both boats took fuel flats in tow and emptied them under way. In addition, both vessels advertised before the race that they would accept freight and passengers.

To this day no commercial boat has beaten the speed record set by Robert E. Lee during the race.

Thanks TNG. That boat race story is really interesting and something I will read about further.