1920 Assay Commission Medal - JK-AC-64, Bronze, Woodrow Wilson

Coin Details

Auction Record

$780 SP64 08-23-2024 Stack's Bowers

Description

The 1920 Assay Commission medal in bronze, cataloged as JK-AC-64, features President Woodrow Wilson during the final year of his presidency. By early 1920, Wilson was largely incapacitated following his October 1919 stroke, with First Lady Edith Wilson and key advisors managing the executive branch behind closed doors. The Assay Commission proceedings continued despite the constitutional uncertainty surrounding presidential disability — a situation that would not be formally addressed until the Twenty-Fifth Amendment in 1967. The 1920 commission examined coinage from a year that marked the transition from wartime to peacetime production at the Mint, including the final Standing Liberty quarters with the recessed date modification introduced in 1917. The bronze medal was distributed to commission members as the standard souvenir of their participation in the annual verification proceedings at the Philadelphia Mint.

Rarity Notes

JK-AC-64, bronze (AE) composition. Wilson portrait during his disabled final year in office. Standard commission distribution. All pre-1920 Assay Commission medals are genuinely scarce.

Cross References

PCGS #514230; JK-AC-64; Woodrow Wilson; 1920 Assay Commission