Hi everyone. I was hoping for an opinion on the award metal shown here. It's a 1905 Expo award metal (Trantow 15c - engraved, if I'm understanding the naming correctly). It's currently up for auction, and I'm wondering how much I should bid on the item. I read that they go for $30-$60 for the non-engraved 15a version, and I saw that there was an auction recently where it finished for just slightly over that range. That said, I was hoping someone could render some insight. The medal was awarded for/to: Preferred stock, Tinned salmon, Allen & Lewis, Portland Oregon, USA I was willing to pay up to $150 for this, but the place I'm thinking of buying it from is charging $38 to ship it to me. (They insist on using FedEx.) If I can convince them to ship FCM Insured or Priority Mail Insured, that leaves me with a budget of around $138 less fees. I'm just wondering if it's worth it to buy. At the current bid, it would cost me $172 or so including fees/shipping based upon the $38 rate. (The current bid is $126.) The auction ends in 50 hours or so, so if anyone happens upon this before then, please give me whatever insight that you might have. Here's what I've found so far through Google searching today: 1) There were three versions: Bronze (15a), Silver-plated (15b), Gold-plated (15c). According to the award box label, the award recipient could opt to have the award engraved or gilt by submission to the Expo. It didn't indicate a fee on the note. 2) These were apparently given out for all sorts of random things. I couldn't find a list of the different awards. 3) Awards originally came in a display box. This medal does not include the box. Combining 1 & 3, I concluded that all awards were issued as non-engraved 15a versions. I'm not sure if you had to actually win the "gold" or "silver" level award to be granted the gilding option. If this is the case, it's likely that 15a is significantly more widely available than 15b or 15c. 4) Heritage Auctions has sold a couple of the 15a version with the boxes, with both finishing in the $200 range with BP. I'm not sure if the box really should carry a $150 value on its own, so I'm assuming that the medals may have become viewed as more marketable (higher value) since the website stating the $30-$60 value was published. Thanks again!
Well, it seems either no one knows the value or no one wants to say. Either way, the auction ends today. The store did say they'll lower the shipping costs to $5 for me, which means I could bid up to $136 or so.
