San Francisco Samuel Bridge School Medal - Bronze pattern or trial piece

I received this interesting item recently, it is a San Francisco Schools Samuel Bridge medal in bronze:


Samuel Bridge Medal - Bronze

The Samuel Bridge silver medals were awarded to the top male students of San Francisco grammar schools from 1879 to 1915.

A similar medal, the Denman silver medal, was awarded to the top female students from 1865 to 1915

The medals were originally struck at the US Philadelphia Mint and later at other places.

The bronze medal was not awarded to a student as only silver medals were awarded. The newspapers at the time usually listed medal awardees in articles on school graduations.

A regular Samuel Bridge silver medal:


Samuel Bridge Medal awarded to Frank O'Donnell in 1895
Silver, 34mm, 18.75gm

The man who sold the bronze medal to me told me he bought it from a coin dealer in Brookfield, Massachusetts.

The bronze medal has no year or inscribed awardee name.

My guess is that it probably was a mint trial piece or pattern.

Is there something else that it could have been?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

@willieboyd2

It is a nice medal, but I don't think it is a trial piece. Such medals, like the image of the silver medal you've posted, were often struck and inscribed at some later time when an award winner was announced.

Chris

 

That's a wonderful medal. I was about to say have you researched this medal on CoinTalk, because I thought I've seen it before...and I did a search and it was yours!

That dark spot at the 12 o'clock position - does anyone thing that could be where something was removed from?

 

The dark spot at the top is a surface stain of some kind. I couldn't find any attachment marks.

 

The obv looks like the same die, the rev is not the same. Completely different.

 

I located a Token and Medal Society (TAMS) article about the Denman Medals, "The Denman Grammar School Medals of San Francisco" by Michael Wehner, TAMS Journal September/October 2011, which had information on where the Bridge medals were struck.

The medals were first struck from 1879 to 1890 at the Philadelphia Mint. In 1890 the Mint stopped striking private medals and shipped the dies to San Francisco. From 1891 to 1906 they were struck at Albert Kuner's firm using these dies. Kuner died in early 1906 and later an earthquake destroyed his firm's shop, dies, and records. From 1907 to 1915 they were struck at Robert Schaezlein's firm using new dies he created.

The bronze medal could have been struck at the Philadelphia Mint or by Kuner in San Francisco to test the dies received from the Mint.