1942 Assay Commission Medal - JK-AC-87, Bronze, Franklin D. Roosevelt

Coin Details

Auction Record

$4,994 SP63 11-05-2015 Stack's Bowers

Description

The 1942 Assay Commission medal in bronze, cataloged as JK-AC-87, features President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the first full year of American participation in World War II. The commission's February 1942 meeting took place just weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack and the nation's entry into the war, and the proceedings reflected the beginning of the extraordinary wartime demands on the Mint. The 1942 coinage that the commission examined included the transition to wartime compositions — the five-cent piece would shift to the copper-silver-manganese "wartime" alloy later that year, and experiments with alternative cent compositions were already underway. Roosevelt's portrait on the medal captures the wartime commander-in-chief at a moment of supreme national crisis, when the outcome of the conflict remained deeply undocumented. The bronze composition indicates standard distribution to commission members during this extraordinary period.

Rarity Notes

JK-AC-87, bronze (AE) composition. FDR wartime portrait. Standard commission distribution. First Assay Commission medal after U.S. entry into World War II.

Cross References

PCGS #972657; JK-AC-87; Franklin D. Roosevelt; 1942 Assay Commission