Post Your Coins And Medals With A Design By John Mercanti

My turn to say it...



Very nice!

Fantastic examples!

Thank you!

Excellent!

@Chopped_Triumphs: Terrific! Thanks for posting your Mercanti/St. Gaudens medal! I enjoy having one of these medals in my collection as well!



To add just a bit of the medal's backstory...

The design on the medal is a recreation of the Winged Liberty design that Augustus Saint Gaudens originally envisioned for the US gold Double Eagle ($20) as part of Theodore Roosevelt's mandated redesign of US coinage; the original plaster model for the design is held by the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire. The design that was ultimately struck as the US $20 gold coin does not include Liberty's majestic wings or her feathered headdress; the standing eagle on the reverse was also switched to a flying eagle on the struck coin.

John Mercanti was commissioned to recreate St. Gaudens' original designs so that they could be struck as precious metal medals using modern minting technology (i.e., Smartminting(r) technology).

The medal was struck by The Royal Mint in the UK for the US-based Asset Marketing Services, a group that secured the rights to recreate St. Gaudens' original designs from the US National Park Foundation and the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site. Asset Marketing Services is a numismatic telemarketing company that is the umbrella organization for GovMint and Modern Coin Mart, among others.

The medal was struck in 0.999 fine silver and 0.9999 fine gold; they were struck on planchets weighing one troy ounce.

Though they were first struck in 2017, the design has been struck in subsequent years as well, including in Palladium and in a larger five-ounce silver version.

Here's the 1991 Mount Rushmore 50th Anniversary gold half eagle,

The obverse was designed and modeled by John Mercanti, you can see his initials - "JM" - at the rim at the 6:30 clock position. The design features an American Bald Eagle soaring over the Mount Rushmore Memorial; its talons grip stone carving tools.

The simple reverse design is basically "Mount Rushmore National Monument" in an calligraphy font. It was the result of a collaboration between Robert Lamb (designer) and William Cousins (modeler); the initials of each appear on the coin.

I don't typically buy the modern gold commems via the three-piece set option, but I recall a dealer offering me the Mt. Rushmore set at a very good price, so...

Here's another Mercanti project from 1991 - the US commemorative silver dollar issued to mark the 38th anniversary of the 1963 Korean Armistice. (The significance of the "38th" relates to the 38th degree of north latitude that roughly divides North Korea from South Korea - the "38th Parallel.")

Mercanti designed the obverse of the coin; his "JM" initials can be found at the rim near the 4:30 clock position. The design includes a soldier, in full gear, gun at the ready, making his way up a hill as a pair of F-86 fighter jets fly overhead and a variety of US Navy ships and merchant ships, presented as silhouettes, fill the sea in the foreground.

The obverse design also includes eight stars at the rim, between the noon an three o'clock positions. I have never read about any special meaning or symbolism for the stars, but that has never stopped me from wondering. I theorize that the stars are meant as American-friendly parallels to the eight trigrams or palgwe, symbols of Korean values that have long been part of Korean culture. I can envision Mercanti wanting to bring these Korean symbols into his coin design but being hesitant of their acceptance by US coin collectors. So, the use of stars as proxies for the trigrams - a secret nod to Korean culture!

The reverse design was created by T. James Ferrell. The coin presents a map of the Korean peninsula with a line representing the 38th parallel dividing north from south. An attentive bald eagle (symbolic of the US) is shown keeping a watchful eye on things to the right of the map. On the South Korea portion of the map is found a Taegeuck which is symbolic of peace and harmony. When shown in color, it is a combination of red (top segment) and blue; it can be found on the South Korean National Flag and multiple official government emblems.

I purchased my uncirculated example directly from the Mint when it was released.

Mercanti did not design the 1983 Los Angeles Olympics silver dollar, that role was handled by then US Mint Chief Engraver Elizabeth Jones. Mercanti did, however, assist Jones with the coin by modeling her reverse design; his initials "JM" follow Jones' "EJ" to the right of the eagle (viewer's perspective) at about the 3 o'clock position.

Shown is the Philadelphia-struck version of the coin. My collection has the silver dollars that were sold in a three-piece set - one uncirculated coin from Philadelphia, one from Denver and one from San Francisco. Individual proof coins struck in San Francisco were also available.