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California Midwinter International Exposition


bill

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As I noted above, it is getting hard to add new pieces, but I did acquire a solid coin stack. This one does not open and might be thought of more as a paperweight.

 

7464328040_ddeb8ba896_c.jpg

 

Very nice piece. :bthumbsup:

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  • 3 months later...
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Every now and then something comes along to still tickle my fancy. I had to pay too much, but I could not resist this mule:

 

1013355.jpg

 

The California state seal side was produced by Hanson in Chicago for a California Midwinter souvenir medal. The Royal Safety Deposit Vaults side is not signed by Hanson, but the die was used for a "good for one dollar towards your first year's rent" token issued by the Royal Trust bank in Chicago. The "World's Fair" referred to on the medal would be the World's Columbian Exposition. The Royal Trust medal had to have been produced by Hanson as well. I do not know why the two pieces were muled as I cannot find any reference to Royal Trust operating in California, While it probably has no relation to the Midwinter Exposition, it is still an unusual piece.

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  • 3 years later...

I first saw a pair of die trials for the California Midwinter Exposition official medal in the Bill Weber auction years ago (2008). I could no7 afford them at the time. Then, I had the opportunity to purchase the pair for the same price each sold for individually (rounding off the costs to the nearest hundred). I was able to demonstrate some of the die production processes used at the U.S. Mint at the time (the dies were produced by the mint and then handed off to a contractor to strike the medals at the exposition) and demonstrate that the obverse die used on the die trials was badly bungled and a new die produced for the production medals. The reverse die is the same on the die trials as the production strikes. The image below is the two die trials and a gold-plated official medal struck on the first day of the exposition.

 

14985915070_7b6de1ca23_c.jpgHK 245 and die trials

 

 

You can read my article (co-authored with Jeff Shevlin) in the March 2015 issue of The Numismatist.

 

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