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Subjects
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Page
Index
Links
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Link:
Mercury - Messenger Of The Gods
Link:
1986 Minnesota Renaissance Festival Medal
Link:
1999 "Milwaukee 65th Annual Coin Show" Tokens
Link:
"Bromwell" Cent Error Investigation
Link:
1994 "Eureka Springs Arkansas" Medal
 100
Link:
Momentarily Unique 1995 Annual GMM Medal
Link:
Asklepios Medical Coin Dug Up
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Enlargement scans available on WWW and ScrapBook CD-ROM.
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| 11/29
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Mercury - Messenger Of The Gods
Here are two superlative demonstration pieces struck during a
Renaissance Festival sometime in the 1980's. The obverse die has the
legend MERCURY and the reverse die has the legend MESSENGER OF
THE GODS. How do you put a value on masterpieces such as these? I
reckon beauty in in the eye of the beholder. Of course it helps to know
what it is you are looking at. Otherwise these are just two odd little
lumps of metal.
I don't know if anyone else out here in hyperspace gets as much pleasure
from seeing examples of Ron Landis' talent as I do since I get minimal
feedback on these small efforts. I'll just keep plugging away doing "my
thing" until I run out of space on my computer.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 11/28
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1986 Minnesota Renaissance Festival Medal
The really cool thing about digging through Ron's RenFest box is that he
tossed anything he didn't consider saleable into it and this included
the trial strikes he produced while creating his medal dies. They sneak
up on a guy and only reveal themselves with careful study.
I didn't know I had the above trial strike (note the missing 1986 date)
until I was placing my purchases in holders and describing each piece
for my inventory. As was his habit, Ron used a previously created die of
the proper size (apparently selected at random) for a reverse die for
this trial strike.
Ron created a series of RenFest medals from 1982-1992 which I haven't
shown you yet since I don't have good examples of all the pieces. This
medal is not one of that series but is one of a handful of special
medals he created for specific celebrations and businesses.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
The renfest dies are not made of hardened steel.
They are made exclusively for HOT striking. This only works with leaded
brass and PURE silver. The press originally set up for this process is
broken, and I do not feel a great urge to resurrect these old designs
and techniques by setting up a new press for this. The medals are out
there in brass and silver, dated from 1982-1992. During this time, I
ended up doing all kinds of die combinations from year to year but never
recorded them on paper or by a collection. I always thought of these to
be novelty items and never found it necessary to do extensive numismatic
cataloging. Remember, at the time I was just a road dog trying to scrape
a few bucks together to get to the next show. Ron Landis...Sun, 26 Nov
2000 12:04:54
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| 11/28
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22mm Pewter and 23mm Copper Milwaukee Tokens
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1999 "Milwaukee 65th Annual Coin Show" Tokens
I knew about the IndianHead Milwaukee Show token and showed it to you on
Page13 in subject
High Relief MercuryHead and IndianHead dies.
During my last trip to Eureka Springs I asked after any additional high
relief MercuryHead die pieces which you know I am greatly impressed with.
WOW...who knew? Three different metal strikes of the requested
MercuryHead obverse die paired with the Milwaukee Show token reverse
die. These pieces were not made to order for me...GMM records indicate
they struck 100 pewter, 50 copper and 20 silver MercuryHead tokens for
the show. So...overall this is an exceptionally rare set of tokens.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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22.5-23.5mm Silver and 24mm Silver Milwaukee Tokens
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| 11/27
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"Bromwell" Cent Error Investigation
This 1793 Chain Cent trial strike is on super thin pewter and clearly
never had any more that the slightest shadow of the dies impressed upon
it when originally struck.
The pewter piece was an early part of an
experiment to figure out how the "Bromwell" cent was made (a very rare
kind of error on Lincoln cent.) I ended up reproducing the error on a
Lincoln cent over NJ copper which was published in Coin World some years
back. Ron Landis...Thu, 16 Nov 2000 10:31:34
Can somebody please explain all
this to us ...AND... perhaps
even provide us a copy of the
Coin World article Ron refers to?
I REALLY need help on this one folks! I haven't a clue what a
Bromwell cent error is or looks like.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 11/27
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Copper Medal Press Adjustment
Piece On GMM Dollar Planchet
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1994 "Eureka Springs Arkansas" Medal
When Joe showed me a coinage press that he was repairing, I noted he was
using a set of Eureka Springs medal dies that I had never seen before.
He was striking pewter planchets to check the press for proper
adjustment/alignment. When he struck this pewter piece the press wasn't
working properly yet. I asked Ron for the piece the next day before I
left.
Noting my interest, Joe had a strike in silver created for me. Timothy
couldn't find the "proper sized" silver planchet on such quick notice so
he used a GMM dollar planchet for this SUPER silver specimen. I
like it better than a "proper" planchet anyway.
Finally, I found this COOL copper medal in the RenFest
box...astounding what a fella can run across in Ron's miscellanea. Ron
told me he had created the medals for the local Eureka Springs merchants
to peddle to the tourists. I got the impression that the medal never was
eagerly sought after so these pieces may not be easy to find.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 11/26
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Click
for Obverse enlargement
Click
for Reverse enlargement
1995 Annual GMM 1.5oz Medal
Overstruck With 2000 Hobo Token
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Momentarily Unique 1995 Annual GMM Medal
Hey...a qualifier on "unique" that isn't an oxymoron. I'd guess that
this stunning creation even has a chance of staying unique. There were
only 500 Annual Medals made in 1995 and the 2000 Hobo Token dies will
close before too long. Not only that...but very few collectors will have
a spare 1995 Annual Medal to use as a host to create this beautiful
piece. If you have any similar pièces de caprice PLEASE let me
know about it so I can share it with other collectors/students of
GMM/Landis creations.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 11/26
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Asklepios Medical Coin Dug Up
It took a lot of digging (figuratively not literally) to come up with
this piece and I sure was suprised when I finally saw it. It is much
more substantial than I was expecting from the scans I had seen. It is
25-26mm in diameter (larger than a 24.3mm US quarter dollar and smaller
than a 30.6mm US half dollar) and 3mm thick...a HEAVY
piece with roughly half a troy ounce of silver in it.
The front of the coin shows the Greek god of medicine.
As·cle·pi·us noun. Greek Mythology. Apollo's son,
the god of medicine.
Asklepios is holding a medicine bowl in one hand and a staff and
serpent, a universal medical symbol, in the other. Asklepios' name and
"By permission of the 44th" circle the image. The back of the coin is
struck with the Arabic number 55, representing the 55th Med. Group,
surrounded by a wreath and "Novus Medicus," meaning new medic. The Roman
numeral CCLVII beneath the wreath represents the 257th Med. Company, the
unit that made the coins.
We struck about 320 coins. Each planchet took a
minimum of 40 hammer strikes to form from the cast 'button.' The metal
was just pure silver casting grain that I obtained from Rio Grand
Supply. About 0.6oz in each planchet. We used on average in excess of
0.7oz per coin. Either 'splash' during the button casting or other loss
reduced our 'yield.'
The bulk of them went to soldiers in the 55th Medical Group who offset
the expense of the project by purchasing a coin for their own enjoyment.
Coins also were given to the soldiers who assisted with the project. The
commander of the 55th received a plaque showing the stages of minting
and three completed coins as his change of command gift from his
subordinate units and soldiers. Later he purchased a number of the coins
so he could present them to others. Finally, a small number were
presented to official individuals (including past commanders of the
257th, several general officers, and local Fort Bragg commanders and
senior NCO's who supported the 257th/55th in one way or another.)
The pieces could have been used as challenge coins but I suspect
they were really treated as collectables even by soldiers who were not
collectors at heart and not carried by soldiers in a challenge mode.
When we started this project I had fairly ambitious plans and envisioned
making 500-800 coins. Turns out that the work involved in hand making
planchets was significant. Also, there is a limit to the amount of time
soldiers (myself included) have available for non-duty projects. All the
work was done on personal/non-duty time. The commander who directly
succeeded me at the 257th was not as interested in continuing the
project as I would have wished.
I have the dies in my safe deposit box. It ended up being my personal
funds that paid for them. I didn't want the project to go in the red, so
I covered the cost of the dies out of my personal checkbook. Terrence S.
Murphy...Mon, 23 Oct 2000 20:06:03
Additional information on this outstanding piece is provided on
Page7 in the SBsubject
"Making Coins the Hard Way".
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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