1933 Assay Commission Medal - JK-AC-78, Bronze, Ogden L. Mills

Coin Details

Auction Record

$960 SP65 08-23-2024 Stack's Bowers

Description

The 1933 Assay Commission medal in bronze, cataloged as JK-AC-78, features Ogden L. Mills, who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Herbert Hoover from 1932 to 1933. Mills, a wealthy New York Republican and protege of Andrew Mellon, inherited the Treasury at the nadir of the Great Depression and worked to stabilize the banking system through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. His portrait on the Assay Commission medal acknowledges his role as the senior Treasury official during one of the most challenging periods in American financial history. The 1933 commission proceedings were among the last under the Hoover administration — Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration in March would bring a radical new approach to the economic crisis, including the Executive Order 6102 requiring citizens to surrender their gold coins. The bronze composition marks this as a standard distribution piece, though the political turmoil of 1933 lends it particular historical resonance.

Rarity Notes

JK-AC-78, bronze (AE) composition. Features Treasury Secretary Ogden L. Mills. Standard commission distribution. Produced during the worst year of the Great Depression.

Cross References

PCGS #518614; JK-AC-78; Ogden L. Mills; 1933 Assay Commission