1983 American Arts Commemorative Medallion - Robert Frost

Coin Details

Auction Record

$1,898 MS66 03-22-2012 Stack's Bowers

Description

The 1983 American Arts Gold Medallion featuring Robert Frost is a half-troy-ounce gold piece honoring the poet who became the unofficial laureate of the American experience in the twentieth century. Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963) drew upon the landscape and people of rural New England to create verse of deceptive simplicity and profound depth, winning four Pulitzer Prizes and receiving the singular honor of reading a poem at President Kennedy's inauguration in January 1961. The obverse features Frost in his later years, the craggy, white-haired figure familiar from countless photographs and television appearances. By the time of his death at eighty-eight, Frost was the most recognized living American poet, his public readings filling auditoriums across the country. The inscription ROBERT FROST and the date 1983 flank the portrait. The reverse evokes the rural New England landscapes that formed the settings for Frost's greatest poems — the stone walls, birch trees, and snow-covered fields of Vermont and New Hampshire that he transmuted into meditations on choice, mortality, and the human condition. HALF TROY OUNCE OF GOLD identifies the content. Frost's poems "The Road Not Taken," "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," and "Mending Wall" are among the most widely quoted works in the English language. His selection for the 1983 half-ounce issue recognized a poet whose seemingly plain-spoken verse concealed depths of irony and ambiguity that continue to reward scholarly attention. The medallion was struck at the West Point Bullion Depository, by 1983 nearing its elevation to official Mint branch status.

Rarity Notes

Total mintage approximately 390,669 pieces. Despite relatively healthy production numbers, many were melted from unsold stock. The Frost medallion is moderately available in the secondary market.

Cross References

PCGS #20507; NGC #724008; Public Law 95-630; Swoger D1983-2