Medals of the Hall of Fame for Great Americans at New York University
by David T. Alexander

The early-1960s brought a "boomlet" in medal collecting, with the issuance of the John F. Kennedy inaugural medal riding the crest of arising numismatic wave. Coin World launched in 1960, and the appetite for all things numismatic was strong. By the end of the decade theFranklin Mint and other manufacturers oversaturated an exhausted collector base with the result that certain artistically worthy medals neverreceived their full due.

Alexander brings a penetrating light aimed at sorting the wheat from the chaff, and in this case honors the series of medals honoring inductees ofthe Hall of Frame for Great Americans at New York University. Issued by Medallic Art Company from 1962 until the mid-1970s, the series consists of 94medals sculpted by some of the best known engravers of the period. Many of these can today be easily acquired on ebay (a quick search reveals 20"hits") and other sources for nominal prices. The approach taken by Alexander is similar to his treatment of early 20th century American art medals(American Art Medals, 1909-1995, published by the American Numismatic Society), including metrology, historical context, and criticalassessments of each medal.

For this project, Alexander contributed text and images to Newman Portal, which were then formatted under NNP sponsorship to accomplish aprofessional result worthy of the subject matter. Newman Portal invites other authors to similarly collaborate. Newman Portal NNP acknowledges DougPlasencia and Pat Alexander for photography, and Lianna Spurrier for graphics layout and design.

Image: John Paul Jones medal, engraved by Michael Lantz

Link to Medals of the Hall of Fame for Great Americans at New York University on Newman Portal:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/booksbyauthor/130