1976 Bicentennial Medal

Cpm9ball is correct that these are sterling silver. There is a series of about 20 medals made for the bicentennial in bronze, pewter, silver, and gold and yours is one of those "4" designs made in both bronze and silver. The bronze versions are "uncirculated" and the silver versions are "proof".

There is some variation in weights and sizes but if memory serves this one in 19 pennyweight which equals .95 ounces of sterling for a total silver weight a little over .9 troy ounces.

The bad news is that there is almost no secondary market for these and mintages were north of 15000 meaning there will be an ample supply for a long long time. These are getting melted at a phenomenal pace right now and were this to continue they would be scarce enough to have a premium in only about ten years. Sterling sells at a steep discount so you should try treat these as though they weigh only about .8 ounces and hope to sell for a premium someday. Or perhaps, better, avoid them until they start getting scarce.

 

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You can't find it there correct? That is because these were not offered through the U.S. Mint but rather the American Bicentennial Society. Some were actually engraved by Frank Gasparro for the society and others engraved by different engravers. Not all these issues were produced in Precious Metal Content. Many, I'll say it again, MANY were produced in BI-Mettalic Composition.

 

There are literally thousands of bicentennial tokens and medals issued by a wide variety of institutions and mints. Most of these just go begging because there is virtually no demand at all.

Even the US mint made other medals that marked the bicentennial but weren't directly commemmorating it. My favorite in this category are the large bronze medals made specifically for the 1976 souvenir mint sets of Philly and Denver. The Denver really commemorates the centennial of the state of Colorado but this was only because it was the bicentennial and the corresponding Philly mint token was changed as well.

Mintages on these sets was very low and I believe they are the sole source of the medals. Attrition on the sets is extremely high and would also be pretty high on the medals.

 

I did see your post regarding this but can not recall seeing such medals. This doesn't mean they don't exist, just that I've probably not seen them.

Are you sure these have the bicentennial designs?

 

They were indeed offered for sale by the US Mint. That's where I bought them back then. I ordered of the OP's medals along with the "Americas First Medals" series. (The later can be viewed here...........http://www.cointalk.com/users/10103-albums722/)

They all came from the mint......(at least all of mine did)

 

Correct and if you read my posts, you will see that it was I, that suggested this OP's Medal might possibly be Sterling Silver and Chris more than implied my information was not factual, telling this OP that their medal was SILVER. B.S. Now all this time coming to the conclusion that this OP's medal quite possibly could be Bi-Mettalic as told by his Dealer. ,this is loosing the OP time in getting a refund, which he paid SILVER SPOT money for and it's more than likely worth the .50 the dealer told them it was.

 

Yes, if you purchased the series issues and they came in OGP

 

No they did not all come from the MINT. There in lies the problem.

 

Now I'm not sure.

I found a couple empty boxes and they are clearly marked "sterling" and even have the words moulded right into the plastic.

 

Well, you see dear fellow, that's where you and I are splitting hairs. I've got a few medals boxed exactly like the OP. They came directly from the mint. Hence, the OP's medal (as photographed) is in OGP. I realize that there were many programs going on and that not everything in that era came out of the US Mint, but I thought we were discussing the OP's medal.

 

I'm not going to continue responding here, your getting off the original OP's subject matter. THERE IS NO WAY CHRIS CAN SAY WITH ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY THAT THIS OP"S MEDAL ACTUALLY IS STERLING OR PURE SILVER, AS IT VERY WELL COULD ALSO POSSIBLY BE ONE OF THOSE THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF THOSE MADE IN OTHER BI-METALLIC COMPOSITIONS. To suggest he can is meritless. He has not had the luxuary appraising the medal in hand, as a professional dealer has had. He needs to not lead a new member down a path of non-sensical misinformation which he cant possibly prove sitting at his keyboard with his book. As was the case with his supposed " GOLD " Bi-Centennial Commemorative Pieces. He may have just lost this OP the opportunity to get a refund from that EBAY Member. Live and Learn Shawni .

 

And does your have documentation from the MINT or from The Bicentennial Society ?

 

This this a copyrighted design by the US Mint, correct?

 

Yes Clad, this design was made in Sterling and...............other Bi-Metallic compositions. It is my understanding that this design was NOT made in SILVER either by the MINT or the Bicentennial commission . They however did make some Silver designs, just not this one. The Silver issues can be easily located through internet archives. I'm not arguing that the OP's medal could possibly be Sterling, although I seriously doubt that now that I have personally spoken to the Coin Dealer that appraised this medal for the OP. The packaging of the op's medal may be authentic, but I tend to side with the dealer who confirmed the medal has no P.M. content. You know the packaging does not always tell the true story. At worse if it is Sterling, it's value is about $37.00 and in line with the current price of silver. If it is not, well.......

 

Why would the documentation come from "The Bicentennial Society" (of which I can find no information. "Commision" yes. "Society", no) when the medals clearly came from the mint?

 

I meant commission and not all of these came from the Mint. Actually it was the National Bicentennial Commission.

 

http://www.google.com/search?q=U.S....9A8SBtgfay_DSBA&ved=0CEwQsAQ&biw=1307&bih=669


Herein you will find the U.S. Mint Logos. The image you presented I believe belongs to the National Bicentennial Commission.

 

Oh BTW, here is one just like the OP's, in the box with the COA . If you hurry and bid more .99 , you to can own this sandwich metal piece. As you see, not all of these that were issued by the Commission have precious metal content.http://cgi.ebay.com/1976-American-R...ltDomain_0&hash=item2eb4e85e43#ht_1175wt_1398 The only difference here is, this seller is not proclaiming that it is Silver, as the seller who sold the OP's theirs did. OH, Also here is the link with photos of the sale of the OP's Medal. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...witem=&sspagename=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_500wt_1413

 

This one is uncirculated and bronze.

The one that's subject of the thread is proof.

 

This is the bit of info that the seller was able to give me..

"I know it is real silver. I remember my father buying these in 1975. The order form was supplied by the US Mint as my father was also buying proof sets for that year. We could not afford the Gold."

The medal is now mine. I would like to have some kind of documentation besides the leaflet that came with it, for my own. I will find something else that I can attach to it, just not sure how. If you go on eBay you can find more then a handful of ones that look just like mine that are being sold as silver and people bidding on them as high as I did. Crazy as it is..