I think that anyone short of an expert will have a hard time answering more than one or two of these questions. But we've got some expertshere! Let's see how folks do, or if I've come up with a stumper. :-)

I'm showing the wreaths on the reverses of four different US medals. Three of these I've had for a while; the fourth one is a newpurchase. And a jaw-dropper of a purchase also - but for reasons that are not exactly related to this challenge and that I'll revealafterwards. For now, give this a shot:

1. Besides obvious trivial details (They're all round! They're all silver! They all have wreaths on them!), what do the four medals havein common? [difficult]

2. Identify each medal:
* A (30.5 mm): [difficult]
* B (30.5 mm): [expert-plus]
* C (36.1 mm): [expert]
* D (36.1 mm): [expert-plus]

Pete Smith writes:

John Sallay writes:

On the PCGS Forum Daniel Carr writes:

I got a laugh out of Pete Smith's guess that these are all medals with no previously published photos. That would have been hilarious, atleast for one of us! But no, at least two of these have been published, and Pete's instincts to look in Julian were spot on.

Dan Carr's response is fascinating. I didn't notice that at all, and I'd never noticed that was a feature of US Mint medals. He got tothe right answer that they're US Mint medals

Kudos to school medal collector John Sallay for identifying three of the four medals. And the one he didn't identify wasn't a schoolmedal, so it's understandable why he missed that one.

All four of these are US Mint medals listed in Julian. In order, they are:

Julian CM-3. The obverse of this medal is more commonly paired with a text-heavy reverse that features an Oath of Allegiance (CM-2). Thewreath reverse is unpictured in Julian but several examples have been sold over the past few years.

Julian SC-26, the Iowa State University award medal. This is a very, very rare medal. Julian could not find an example to picture in hisbook, knowing of it only from the mint records and a surviving obverse die. He writes, "There may be a reverse for this medal, as Irish paid $75for the dies, which seems high for just one lettered die." Yes, there was a reverse!

Julian SC-27, the Toner medal for Jefferson Medical College. This is pictured in Julian, where it listed as 32 mm. This is also a very raremedal, so much so that I don't have an example. I'm showing the pictures from Julian instead. The 1986 Dreyfuss sale included an example thatconfirms that the diameter is actually 36 mm and that the smaller size reported in Julian is incorrect. If you think it's odd that I can show youthe reverse in the original challenge while also saying that I can't show you the obverse of the actual medal here... keep reading!

Julian SC-32, the Pennsylvania Blind Institution award medal. This is another very, very rare medal. Julian has a photo of the obverse butnot of the reverse.

When I posed this challenge, I thought that someone might be able to identify CM-3. It's rare but not impossibly rare, and the wreath isfairly distinctive. From there, someone could realize that all of these have the "look" of US Mint medals of this period, and get a platematch to the photo of SC-27 in Julian. The other two (SC-26 and SC-32) are so rare and unpictured in Julian; it would have taken some doing foranyone to identify those without having examples of their own like John has.

All of this brings us back to medal C. This was my recent purchase. I bought it online with one other piece, because it looked odd. I didn'tthink much about it when I bought it, or when I opened the package. Then I looked at it again. And I looked at the piece that came with it. And thenI realized what I was looking at and my jaw hit the floor. (And then it took me 15 minutes to button everything down and confirm my hunch!)

This is medal C again, on the left, and its flip side on the right. Look familiar? The piece I bought is a mule of the reverses of Julian SC-27and SC-32. This is unlisted. As far as I know, it's also unprecedented. There are many mules known of the larger US Mint medals in the MI-and NA- series. Also, some of the obverse dies were intentionally struck with several different reverses, such as the series of dated medals for theMassachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association (Julian AM-34 through AM-41) with the same obverse and different reverses in different years. This maybe the first example of a mule of two different small-size award medal dies originally intended for other US Mint medals, repurposed as a totally newaward medal. This wasn't even on my radar as something that might possibly exist.

The other piece I bought with this? It is of course a mule of the reverses of CM-3 and SC-26.

Normally I'm skeptical when anyone claims to have found an unlisted US Mint medal. In this case, I'm calling it. We have four dies thatare known to produce US Mint medals, and only known to produce US Mint medals, now seen in two pairs of struck mules. These have got to be legitimate(if clandestine!) US Mint medals as well.

...and if you're still in doubt, there's the matter of the recipients. Medals of this type are normally called award medals, for thevery obvious reason that they were normally awarded as prizes. It looks like my mules were also awarded, to Mary Colton Calhoun on January 18, 1871and to Jane Duncan Calhoun on May 14, 1877. Appearances can be deceiving - those aren't award dates! Mary Colton Calhoun and Jane DuncanCalhoun were the second and third daughters of James Richardson Calhoun and Marie Louis Barth. Those are their BIRTH dates. The Calhouns lived inPhiladelphia (huh!), specifically in the 10th district of the 3rd ward, which (of course!) is the ward that contained the US Mint building. In the1870 census James Calhoun is listed as a clerk of the US Asst Treas.

How about that!

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
EXPERT-LEVEL U.S. MEDALS CHALLENGE(https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n07a16.html)