(2011) First Spouse Bronze Medal - Lucretia Garfield

Coin Details

Description

The Lucretia Garfield bronze medal honors a First Lady whose tenure was cut short by her husband James A. Garfield's assassination in 1881, just six months into his presidency. Lucretia Rudolph Garfield, known as "Crete" to her husband, married the future president in 1858 after meeting him at Geauga Seminary and later at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, where both were students. The obverse portrait, designed by Barbara Fox and sculpted by Michael Gaudioso, depicts a woman of considerable intellectual depth who mastered Greek and Latin and shared her husband's scholarly interests. The reverse, designed by Barbara Fox and sculpted by Don Everhart, references the Garfield family's domestic life and Lucretia's devotion to education. In the spring of 1881, Lucretia contracted malaria and was convalescing at a New Jersey seaside resort when Charles Guiteau shot President Garfield at a Washington train station on July 2, 1881. She rushed back to nurse her husband through his agonizing eighty-day decline before his death on September 19, 1881. The nation's outpouring of sympathy resulted in a substantial trust fund for her family, and Lucretia Garfield lived another thirty-six years in quiet dignity, dying in 1918 at age eighty-five. Struck in bronze at 1-5/16 inches, this medal completes the 2011 First Spouse quartet.

Rarity Notes

Produced at the Philadelphia Mint during 2011 without a fixed mintage limit. Available on the secondary market at standard series pricing.

Cross References

PCGS #507043; companion to First Spouse Gold $10