The medalette commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the Syracuse Numismatic Association arrived this week & I finally got a chance to photograph it . I call it a medalette because it seems too large for a token & too small for a medal . It was struck in bronze, patinated & then burnished, measures 32.10 mm, & weighs 12.95 gm. I bought the dies for the medalette over 30 years ago at auction & was never able to locate a sample struck from these dies. New CT member Dan Strizzle, inherited a small hoard of these medalettes struck from the dies a gave me one , pictured below along with the dies. The dies were engraved by Alphonse Kolb, who immigrated from Germany & settled in Rochester, NY. Kolb was educated in classical art & greatly admired the great coin engravers from ancient Sicily. Kolb also made the storecard dies pictured below in ancient Greek style for a Rochester, NY coin dealer in the 1950s.
Syracuse has a long history in this department. If you requested a catalog, bought a Sterns bike or won a race in 1898, you could get one of these dekadrachms.
