In his remarks last week about U.S. Mint engraver Engelhardus von Hebel, Dick Johnson wrote:

Roger Burdette writes:

HOW CAN AN ARTIST DO A MEDAL TWO YEARS AFTER HE DIES?

Roger Burdette raises an interesting question about Chief Engraver John R. Sinnock. He states Sinnock died in 1947. True. He is credited with theobverse portrait of Truman on a medal issued in 1949. Also true.

Sinnock's ghost was not creating medals in the engraving room of the Philadelphia Mint after the good engraver had passed on. The answer wasso simple I was baffled until I realized the 1949 Truman Medal was for his Second Term.

The Mint used his portrait from Truman's First Term Medal which Sinnock did both sides in 1945. The Mint took a shortcut by using the existingSinnock portrait, creating a new reverse, by Gilroy Roberts and Engelhardus von Habel, mentioned in last week's E-Sylum.

But there ARE instances of medals issued a year or two after an artist's death. Most prominent examples are two of Laura Gardin Fraser'swork. her two Hall of Fame Series medals.

She died in 1966. Her Mary Lyon Medal was issued in 1967. Her Gilbert Stuart Medal was issued in 1968. Her models were only half done at the timeof her death. The models were retrieved from her studio and assigned to sculptor Karl Gruppe to complete them. To his credit he retained her originaldesign concept and modeled them in her sculptural style.

There are other instances -- too many to mention -- where dies have been engraved, or models completed, but were not issued until a later date.For many reasons, from lack of funds to change of a medal program.

The artist's date of death is vitally important, which Roger undoubtedly had in mind in his comment. I have attempted to learn the date ofdeath of every artist in my artists databank. Those listed after the artist's date of death are in a category I call "Replicas &Reissues."

Medals in which a portrait, device, or other pictorial element is repeated -- copied, if you wish -- on a later medal falls in this category.Medallic artists frequently look to previous medal designs for inspiration. If the replication is too close it is indeed a replica. If the medal isexact for both sides, it is a reissue.

Houdon's bust of Washington is perhaps the most copied portrait in American medals. I have record of 60 medals with his famous relief portraitdepicted.

But for Laura Gardin Frasers' two Hall of Fame Medals I list among her work while she was alive. I also give credit to Karl Gruppe forfinishing her models.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
U.S. MINT ENGRAVER ENGELHARDUS VON HEBEL (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n49a17.html)