1920 Manila Mint Opening Medal - Gold

Coin Details

Auction Record

Description

The 1920 Manila Mint Opening Medal - Gold is one of the five gold strikings of the medal made when the Manila Mint opened on July 6, 1920. The obverse carries Woodrow Wilson's bust with PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; the reverse shows a kneeling goddess holding up a pair of scales while she guides a boy at a coining press, with TO COMMEMORATE THE OPENING OF THE MINT, MANILA P.I. and 1920. George T. Morgan cut the dies and signed both sides, reworking his design for the Assay Commission medals; the attribution to Clifford Hewitt found in older books is doubted by NGC. The mint's records give 2,200 medals in silver, 3,700 in copper and 5 in gold. Unsold medals were dumped in the sea off Corregidor in 1942, and many recovered pieces are corroded. One gold medal is said to have gone to President Wilson and one to the Secretary of War; the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which holds one in its Money Museum, counts three known. Hibler and Kappen number the gold medal HK-1031. Catalogue numbers: HK-1031, KM-X11b. PCGS number 510535.

Cross References

HK-1031; KM-X11b