2016-10-14 Fri

The 10th anniversary of the end of World War I was observed in 1928 by Italy with the issue of a special gold medal featuring Italy’s King Vittorio Emanuele III wearing a helmet on the obverse along with fasces, lion-headed axe and anniversary legend on the reverse. It weighs 32.46 grams, which is equal to the weight of a 100-lira coin. The king was a famous coin collector himself and donated over 100,000 pieces from his collection to Italians after his death in 1946.

Italy’s top coin designers, Giuseppe Romagnoli and Atillio Silvio Motti created the medal and their names appear on the obverse. The same design was used for a 1928 silver 20-lira coin marking the same event.

Spink’s Auction No. 326, in New York City will be offering one of them graded Extremely Fine on 19th October with an estimate of $2,000 to $2,500.