Life Saving Medals

1920 Carnegie Hero Fund Medal. Silver. Choice Mint State.

76.2mm. 3490.8 grains. Obv: Frock-coated Andrew Carnegie bust to the right, inscriptions CARNEGIE HERO FUND above and ESTABLISHED APRIL 15TH 1904 below. Rev: Outline map of North America, arms of old Canada (four provinces), Newfoundland (then a separate Crown Colony) and the U.S. around a cartouche inscribed to the recipient NANNIE B. CROCKER / WHO DIED ATTEMPTING TO SAVE / FROM DROWNING / MYRL E. HATFIELD / DILLON, MONT. / JULY 2, 1920. Virtually as issued, trace of deepening of the antiquing at obverse right. The Carnegie Hero Fund website, carnegiehero.org, includes the following information about the recipient of this medal: "Nannie B. Crocker, 40, housewife, died attempting to save Myrl E. Hatfield, 13, from drowning, Dillon, Montana, July 2, 1920. Myrl stepped into deep water in an excavation while wading in a gravel pit. Mrs. Crocker jumped from the side of the excavation four feet to her. Myrl grasped Mrs. Crocker's arms and attempted to climb on her shoulders. A young man reached them, and Myrl immediately grasped him. Her attempts to climb on his shoulders caused him to sink, and Myrl released her hold. He rose and again sank and became unconscious. Mrs. Crocker then grasped Myrl and tried to swim to wadable water, but she got farther away in her struggles. She released her hold on Myrl, took two strokes, sank, and was drowned. Myrl was drowned too, but the young man was rescued. 20548-1654."

From our (Stack's) New York Americana Sale of January 2011, lot 6451.

Estimate: 2000