A few weeks back while in Southern California, an object overhead quickly caused quite a stir, as it had the appearance of a comet. Watching it in real time, however, this idea was quickly abandoned, as it was moving far too quickly to be a comet. Pictured above is an image of said object, offering a bright look and a rather voluminous tail trailing behind it. A search online revealed that, rather than a visitation from outside of our earthy realm, it was in fact terrestrial and bound for orbit, as it was a nearby SpaceX launch destined as a Starlink satellite. Even though it wasn’t a comet, it certainly provided a great deal of wonder, and allowed for a great photograph. Relatedly, that brings us to the first medal in this mid-month upload, something that does feature a comet…

Issued for the early 20th century appearance of Halley’s Comet, this flashy silver medal was designed by the great Karl Goetz, though serves as a departure from the typical satirical issues by which he is more generally known. Displaying a great deal of celestial and zodiacal iconography, it is a very rare type in silver, especially in this elite grade of PCGS MS-62.

Moving to sports, a couple important soccer competitions wrapped up over the weekend, with Argentina winning the Copa América and Spain taking the Euros. With the former, one can imagine how fellow Argentines would welcome their club upon returning home, but they may look something like this…

This silvered bronze medal from 1903 celebrates Argentina’s hosting of neighboring Chilean guests following agreements upon naval armaments.

Meanwhile, speaking of Spain, their soccer program couldn’t be painting a better picture, as both men and women have now each won their most recent tournament, with the women winning the World Cup last year. Given the talk of Spain and painting pictures, this medal celebrating Pablo Picasso fits in rather well…

Presenting a bit of an odd shape, this rather modern art medal emanates from the initial output of the British Art Medals series and was designed by Jane McAdam. Featuring the head of the iconic artist on one side and a female head in his cubist style (and likely being inspired by his painting, Le Rêve) on the other, it is one of just 35 produced at the Royal mint.

Switching back to something more surreal, this World War I-era cast bronze medal from the hand of Hans Lindl pokes some fun at then-U.S. president, Woodrow Wilson, before the American entry into the war on the side of the allies…

The reverse imagery, fairly haunting and provocative, features Death as a skeleton influencing an emaciated figure of Justice, tipping the scales held in her hand in favor of the bulldog emblematic of Great Britain.

Lastly, here is a tremendous architectural medal, and one that no doubt rivals the great works of Jacques Wiener…

Designed by American Anthony Paquet, this medal for the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in Philadelphia certainly evokes the feeling of Wiener’s tremendous body of work as well as the Italian issues of Bianchi, but instead features an edifice from the New World. Many of these examples will be encountered, as is the case here, with a later silvering and engraving on the obverse from the consecration event on 30 June 1890. While this was clearly done some 26 years after the medal was produced, the coordinated nature of it allows for the plated and engraved examples to be treated as their own subset of the issue.

For all of this upload’s new items, please click here or on the banner art below. We will be back again at the beginning of August with another great selection of art and historical medals.

You are receiving this message because you have expressed an interest in our material or have purchased from us in the past.