1958 So-Called Dollar HK-711, Mansfield Sesquicentennial

Coin Details

Auction Record

$80 MS65 04-26-2022 Stack's Bowers

Description

Designated HK-711 in the Hibler-Kappen catalog, this 1958 piece commemorates Mansfield Sesqui in Ohio. Centennial medals served as tangible connections to a community's founding era, with designs typically featuring the city seal, important local landmarks, portraits of founding figures, or scenes from the community's early history. Struck in bronze, this piece combines durability with an attractive warm tone that deepens with age into a rich chocolate-brown patina. Bronze was the preferred composition for many commemorative medals due to its excellent detail retention. After relocations from Manhattan to Danbury, Connecticut (1972), Sioux Falls, South Dakota (1991), and Dayton, Nevada (1997), the company's archive of 50,000 items including 20,000 dies was rescued by the American Numismatic Society in 2018. Ohio's central location and rapid 19th-century growth made it one of the most active states for commemorative medal production, with communities from Cleveland to Cincinnati marking milestones with locally produced pieces. Harold Hibler and Charles Kappen spent decades cataloging American dollar-sized medals, creating a reference work that transformed a scattered collecting field into an organized numismatic specialty. The postwar boom of 1950-1976 was the golden age of local commemorative medal production, with the Heraldic Art Company and other manufacturers producing hundreds of pieces for community celebrations across America.

Rarity Notes

Local commemorative so-called dollars from the mid-20th century survive in varying quantities. Examples of HK-711 are scarce in the numismatic market.

Cross References

HK-711; PCGS #643320