1931 Assay Commission Medal - JK-AC-75, Bronze, Herbert Hoover

Coin Details

Auction Record

$360 MS65 04-03-2019 Heritage Auctions

Description

The 1931 Assay Commission medal in bronze, cataloged as JK-AC-75, features President Herbert Hoover in his second year on the series, as the Great Depression deepened dramatically. By 1931, unemployment had risen sharply, bank failures were cascading across the country, and public confidence in both the financial system and the Hoover administration was collapsing. The Assay Commission proceedings took on an almost surreal quality — the formal verification of coinage standards continued even as the economic system those coins served was disintegrating. Mint production plummeted in 1931, with several denominations seeing drastically reduced output or cessation entirely at some facilities. The bronze composition marks this as a standard distribution piece for commission members, though the atmosphere at the 1931 proceedings must have been considerably more somber than in the prosperous years of the previous decade. Hoover's portrait reflects the strain of a president overwhelmed by economic catastrophe.

Rarity Notes

JK-AC-75, bronze (AE) composition. Second Hoover portrait. Standard commission distribution. Produced during the deepening of the Great Depression with plummeting Mint production.

Cross References

PCGS #514237; JK-AC-75; Herbert Hoover; 1931 Assay Commission