2016-09-26 Mon

Coin & Currency Institute of New York issued a key volume of 156-page hardcover catalogue called the So-Called Dollars by Californians Harold E. Hibler and Charles V. Kappen was released in 1963.

The term “so-called dollars” was widely used in the 1950s by Richard D. Kenney referring to the medals which had a similar size as that of the U.S. silver dollar. Hibler and Kappen greatly contributed to his listing and helped promote the interest levels in collecting such medals.

The book filled a big time gap in American numismatics but lacked research. They were followed just because Hibler and Kappen included them.

Adams Company had struck a HK-509 1953 Louisiana Purchase Sesquicentennial medal for A St. Louis coin dealer Otto Oddehon.

St. Louis hosted the 1903 to 1904 Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition, whose many medal issues were cataloged by the late Nathan Eglit. A sesquicentennial exposition expected on the 150th Anniversary, but the event did not get federal or local business support.

Oddehon issued a private medal depicting a riding medieval armoured knight with the inscription MFGD. FOR & DISTD. BY/ ODDEHON/ ST. LOUIS, MO. The reverse featured a North American map fading away without Alaska.

The catalogue listed a 1953 gathering of five history-minded citizens amid the urban renewal rubble of the 1903 fair site who drank a champagne toast “to the westward course of empire” and set off six bombs and rockets, of which half misfired. Oddehon medals are known to be struck in bronze, silverplate and brass.