Highly Desirable 1937 Assay Commission Medal

Missing from the Keusch Collection

1937 United States Assay Commission Medal. Bronze. 58 mm. By John Reich and John R. Sinnock. JK AC-82a. Rarity-6. Edge Incuse HON. NELLIE TAYLOE ROSS. MS-66 (NGC).

Mint-applied light bronze finish provides an unusual yet memorable appearance for this piece. The surface quality is outstanding, fully Gem and Superb apart from a few extremely trivial spots on the reverse. Originally presented to Nellie Tayloe Ross, who served as the 28th director of the Mint from 1933 to 1953. The 1937 is one of the most popular and also rarest issues in the Assay Commission medal series. The depiction of Thomas Jefferson on the obverse probably has to do with his status as one of the founders of the modern Democratic Party, as the party's contemporary leader Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated for his second term as president on January 20, 1937. The reverse exhibits what students of this series believe to be the best representation of a press on an Assay Commission medal. Despite being assembled over years of searching, the extensive the Ernest E. Keusch Collection of United States Assay Medals (Stack's, November 2008) did not include an example of this date. Clearly the present offering is a rare and important one that deserves serious consideration.

From the Richard Jewell Collection. Earlier from our Baltimore Auction of March 2016, lot 12046.