Newman Portal User Shares MACO Photographs

A Newman Portal user forwarded this October 1971 photograph from the groundbreaking ceremonies for the Medallic Art Company (MACO) facility in Danbury, Connecticut. Left to right are MACO officials Dick Johnson (research director), Ray Ruete (production director), Julius Lauth (vice president and art director), Frances K. Trees (vice president), and William T. Louth (president). In the photograph, MACO officials pour plaster into the mold for the first medal to be produced at the new facility.

An example of this building dedication medal is illustrated here, as well as one of the ceremonial cups used to pour the mold. The cup bears an image of the MACO symbol designed by Daniel Chester French. Visitors to the ANS have no doubt recognized this same imagery on a cast exhibited in the sitting area.

The footprint of the Danbury facility, nearly an acre, provides some idea of the scope of the operation. Originally based in midtown Manhattan on East 45th Street, the remnants of MACO have today come full circle, with the recent acquisition of the MACO archives by the ANS, currently stored in a Brooklyn warehouse. The Danbury groundbreaking ceremony was covered in Coin World, November 3, 1971, with the opening ceremony noted in the November 15, 1972 issue.