hiho

Here is my 1895 Winterthur which Rod details nicely on the previous page of this thread.

Mine has toned a bit more than Rod's. The details here are amazing, and the medal has no flaws that I can find.

"I will be interested in seeing the other 2 you procured."

The other five, and hopefully six if I win your auction.

Here's a medal that is a bit of a mystery. At first glance it appears to be a Richter #1130b, 1911 Olten, 23mm silver and one of 440 produced.

But there is the letter "A" in the diamond on the obverse, and the 1130b, according to Richter, has no letter.

The Richter #1131a does have the "A" in the diamond but was only struck in gold. So this medal is a bit of a mule.

I would jump at the chance to purchase the gold companion to this and have a matching set.

I recently bought a few shooting medals from a dealer and since I purchased four I qualified for a quantity discount, so I picked up the new Richter set, which is quite amazing and worth every penny.

I'll list all the medals eventually but for tonight here are two of the same medal with a slight variation.

Both are Richter catalog #420, dated 1905, from Fribourg. These are silver, 33mm, with 858 struck.

The first came in the display case, and is extremely toned and never cleaned. It is signed "HOLY FRERES" on the reverse, the same as the one in the Richter catalog.

The second has very little toning, and may have been lightly cleaned at one time. This one is signed "Holy Frs", I wonder how many were produced like this?

More as I find the time.....

Three very nice 1724's. Moving right along to 1723...

Ready for a 1722. And standing by with nice 1712 and 1707...

I may have a Hamburg Schilling from 1726, have to find it though.

Would you like a few of us to stop by and help you find that coin?

"Take me to your leader. I come in peace."

My Father has normally had Martin books in the past but when I asked him about one for you he told me he did not have any at this time. I will look around at some of my sources and see what I can find... if I can find.

Thanks Rod, whatever you can do will be appreciated.

Doing a quick date search on omnicoin we need darkside help from Ian. He has a real nice group of coins and tokens in this date range.

Someone should send him a PM and politely plead for his help.

I'm ready with a nice 1723 Hibernia and a very nice Swiss 1712 and Dutch 1707 gold ducat, actually two of my favorite coins.

hiho,

 

A Richter set is not too easy to find but I can get one from the author. With the devaluation of the US dollar to the Swiss franc the set might cost including shipping in the $175-185 range

Can you help me purchase the Martin reference first while I save up for the Richter?

PLEASE...

(time passes...)

I swear this thread either moves at 200 miles an hour or sits in long term parking at the airport for a month...

We picked up a few medals from the recent Stacks auction I'm happy to say. The following medal was aquired by my Dad at a recent UBS auction in Switzerland. It is a beautiful one of a kind gold medal from Frauenfeld.

 

1890 Federal Schützenfest Thurgau, Frauenfeld

Metal: Gold

Mintage: 1 (there are 3 silver and 3 bronze examples)

Weight: 67.3 gm

Engraver: Stefano Johnson, Milano

 

Fantastic medal. 67 grams of gold with a mintage of one. I cannot begin to fathom what it's worth. What a prize!

The 1929 watch is a beauty too. I have seen the medal, it's fairly common, but to see the watch (and in such amazing condition) is a real treat.

I wish I had known that Stack's had Swiss shooting medals in their last auction...

hiho,

 

If I could only have one reference then I would purchase the Richter set. It has more content and the pictures are in color opposed to black and white as in Martin's. If cost is a deciding factor then Martin would be the way to go. Richter is the "new bible" of schutzenfest medals and rightly so.

I'm going to see if my local library has either (they have a pretty decent numismatic reference section) and then probably will buy the Martin reference (if I can find one) with an eye to one day acquiring the Richter set. Maybe convince my library that the Richter set should be on their buying list so I can look it over first.

Do you know where these can be purchased and about what they cost? I have had no luck finding any for sale online.

Very nice medals you posted by the way, with great detailed photos.

hiho,

 

As you know, you have a 1906 Vaud, Nyon Cantonal Schützenfest medal with a mintage of 400 pieces. It is 33 mm in size and is silver. Silver was the only metal this particualr medal was made in.

 

It is R1610 (Richter) and M964 (Martin)

 

The engraver is Alfred Jacot-Guillarmond of Le Locle

 

It's value would range (conditon range of EF to Pristine UNC) from approx. $70 - $150.00

 

You have a nice example of this schützenfest medal.

Thanks for the excellent information Rod, I bought this raw, NGC graded it MS64 and I completely agree.

One of these days I have to buy the Richter book, and retire my 1965 Krause. (Would you recommend the Martin instead of the Richter if you could only own one?)

Until then I'm counting on you to pop in to this thread from time to time and keep us all up to date.

And finally we know the correct spelling of Alfred Jacob-Guillarmond.

This is my 1727 Netherlands 2 Stuiver.

Notice the die shift on the reverse?

This thread has REALLY picked up momentum...

Feel free to post a 1726...

"Jacob Guillarmod" is not listed in Forrer (at least not that I can find).

The Vaud fish on her chest is a nice touch as well (the one that didn't get away!)

Next chance I get I'll take out my loupe and try and get the correct spelling of Jacob G's name.

The fish was extremely well placed, at least from a design perspective...

My 1965 Krause "Swiss Shooting Talers And Medals" lists the engraver as Jacob Guillarmod.

I love the woman's flying saucer hat...

Ooh.. that's gorgeous

 

I'll reserve the right to post 1727

Agreed that the 1729 taler was indeed gorgeous. It would be hard to find a coin that would better represent the date.

Hats off to worldcoinguy for jumpstarting this thread with that nice 1733 taler.

I would like to co-reserve 1727 with tane as I have a pretty decent Netherlands 2 Stuiver piece to show. Important to maintain a Dutch presence to keep things civilized...

You know as a group we have a pretty complete/pretty impressive dated type collection. Wouldn't you say?

Here's a new Swiss Shooting Medal I recently picked up, a 1906 Nyon........

Only 400 of these were struck.

Anyone want to try and guess how NGC graded it?

Happy to see this thread has sprang back to life...

Standing by with a 1727, 1723, 1712, and a 1707.

"How Far Back Can We Go?" now has 500 replies!

Information from obtained from Forrer:

 

Holy Freres (i.e. "Holy Brothers") was a firm which was established in 1893 at St. Imier in Switzerland. The brothers, Franz Holy & Jules Holy directed it. They were watch-case manufacturers & diesinkers.

 

They eventually branched out into medal making. Forrer lists a number of medals and it appears the firm was most active in medal making from 1903-1911 (some medals are undated and might have been produced later).

This makes perfect sense, as I have seen watches engraved by Holy Freres in addition to their shooting medals.

Thank you grivna1726 and schutzenfester for this info. I was absolutely clueless...

If anyone here has any Holy Freres medals that they wish to sell or trade away, please click on the down arrow to the right of hiho and then click on SEND MESSAGE. I definitely prefer uncleaned examples, but I'll keep an open mind if it's something I need.

Nice medal nevertheless.

No one here knows anything about Holy Freres?

As I get more into the Swiss Shooting Medals I find I am drawn to the engraver Holy Freres. His/Her/Their work is outstanding.

Was Holy Freres a man, woman, or group of friars as the name implies? Google has nothing.

I'm suprised there are so many young people here.

I expected just old geezers like myself.

PS - I started collecting coins at age 12.

My father bought our first house with a coin collection that he assembled as a policeman in Jersey City in the 1950's.

He found some great coins, including a 1916-D dime, simply by asking local merchants if he could look through their change.

He always paid the merchants. He was an honest cop.

Later he became a banker after my mom told him "You can be a cop or you can continue to have me as your wife. Decide..."

He was an honest banker too.

oops...

A bit of British just in time for St. Patricks Day...

I'll post a decent 1723 British (Hibernia) Half Penny when the time comes.

Major thanks to okrecer03 for keeping this thread alive...