The Magnificent Six Medals of Toivo Johnson, Part 1

[greysoldier]

In the early 1960s, numismatist and coin dealer Toivo Johnson decided to design and strike a series of large format (3 inch / 76mm) medals called Coin Medals. "The Magnificent Six" were to be in Johnson's words, "..an impressive coin medal series that honors the great names of numismatics".

 

They were designed by Toivo Johnson with dies executed by Robert Stephan Schabel and struck by the Metal Arts Company of Rochester New York. The six famous engravers honored on these medals were:

 

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Victor D. Brenner

Charles E. Barber

Christian Gobrecht

Euaenetos

James Longacre & George Morgan combination

 

Each design was srtuck in both .999 silver ( approximately 6.9 oz.) and bronze versions, with the silver having serial numbers on the edge. The silver medals were sold for $30.00 and the bronze for $5.00.

 

First was the Augustus Saint- Gaudens design, struck and copyrighted in 1961:

 

 

 

The obverse design was taken from the 1893 Columbian Exhibition Award Medal designed and signed by Saint-Gaudens.

 

 

Second was the Victor D. Brenner design, struck and copyrighted in 1962:

 

 

 

The obverse design was taken from the 1902 medal for the visit of Prince Henry designed and signed by Brenner. (note the removal of the Prussian shield from the revised design)

 

 

Third was the Charles E. Barber design, also struck and copyrighted in 1962.

 

 

 

The obverse design was taken from a Barber designed portrait of TR.

 

 

The remaining 3 medal images and additional information will be presented in Part 2.

 

 

[physics-fan3.14]

Interesting.

 

Are these medals scarce or desirable today?

 

What were their mintage numbers?

 

How many survive?

 

Are any of the issues scarcer than the others?

 

Did they come in other finishes or metals?

 

How did he choose the particular people he did (for example, given that all of them are American, it seems odd that there is a single ancient Greek engraver in the mix).

 

Why were Longacre and Morgan on the same one, rather than issuing seven medals?

 

How did he choose the particular examples he did (it would seem, for example that VDB and St. Gaudens each had more famous works - why were those chosen?)

 

The copies all seem rather cartoonish, especially the VDB piece.

[greysoldier]

Great questions Physics, although I certainly don't know all of the answers.

 

The bronze examples are quite common. The silver issues are harder to locate. Silver was at about 91 cents an ounce in 1961. As I recall, circulating coinage from 10 to 50 cents was 90% silver and you could still get silver dollars from the bank for $1. Since they were about 6.9 ounces of .999 silver, I imagine that more than a few of these big silver medals went into the melting pot when silver reached $49.45 in January of 1980.

 

None of the designs appear to be particularly more difficult to find than the others.

 

No other finishes or metals were available that I am aware of, although some lead die trials (splashers) are known. Those are probably rare and may even be unique in some cases.

 

The silver issues were supposed to be limited and I doubt that over several thousand of any single design were issued. I have not personally seen edge numbers over 1,500, but you could 'reserve' your serial number, so evidently if you wanted serial number 44444, you could have it.

 

How or why these designers or their designs were selected is currently a mystery to me as well, but I am trying to find out more. It does seen a bit odd that Longacre and Morgan were combined on a single issue.

 

I guess that beauty really is in the eyes of the beholder.

 

Hope that some of this has been helpful and I will try to post Part 2 in the near future with the other 3 designs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Zebo]

Thanks for posting - interesting

[RWB]

Absolutely awful !

[greysoldier]

They are different. Perhaps destined to become a cult classic like The Rocky Horror Picture Show. More will be revealed shortly in Part 2.

[MJ]

They are different. Perhaps destined to become a cult classic like The Rocky Horror Picture Show. More will be revealed shortly in Part 2.

 

I'm intrigued by the Victor D. Brenner design.

 

mark

 

[greysoldier]

Yes Mark, I agree that the Brenner design is most interesting ~ taken from his 1902 medal.

 

Some consider it one of his best of the over 300 medals attributed to him. Only several hundred were struck. A similar theme is on the reverse of Brenner's 1911 Motherhood for the Circle of Friends (of the Medallion) series.

 

 

 

Notice that his medals were signed as VD Brenner rather than the V.D.B as seen on his Lincoln cent design.

[RWB]

Victor Brenner commonly used "V.D. Brenner" or "Brenner" on medals. The cent reverse originally had his name, but the Mint Dir had Engraver Barber change it to the less obtrusive "V.D.B" -- something everyone who examined the first coins thought was OK. (The only objection came from the Washington Star newspaper. After that Treasury Secretary MacVeagh got cold feet and ordered the initials moved or removed.)

[PocketArt]

I picked up one of these Toivo medals, it's the Victor D. Brenner tribute medal, and I paid $2 over spot.  It weighs in at 6.55 Oz., and is numbered 412.  I missed this post last April greysoldier- when I first saw this medal I didn't know the history behind it; that these were recreations on the obverse.  

I noticed you mention that the copyright for these are 1962.  Mine is copyrighted 1961 on the reverse- fine mark and date between the logs on right side of medal.  

Here is a couple of links on the history of these medals published in E-sylum.  The second link was brought to my attention by Zoins.  The photo's you originally posted aren't showing on my end greysoldier  .  Doesn't look like everything migrated- unfortunately.  

http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v15n09a13.html

http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v13n27a15.html#top

[thebeav]

That's a beauty !