Tokens and medals are a challenging field within numismatics, defying simple classifications and clear definitions of set completion. Collectors gravitate toward well-defined objectives, andwithin American numismatics one finds more coin collectors than token and medal aficionados. Among the latter, researcher John Sallay has made a specialty of school-awarded medals and has cataloguedover 3,000 U.S. examples.

Sallay recently identified a Washington University piece in his collection (here photographed by Sallay) and sought further information from the University. The obverse of this medal depictsGeorge Washington, immediately suggesting an origin date of c. 1932 as the bicentennial of Washington's birth generated a number of medallic tributes. Sonya Rooney, University Archivist, uncoveredthe story in the February 1937 Alumni Bulletin, which states in part,

The Alumni medal depicted here is unawarded, lacking the recipient's name that would have been hand engraved on the reverse beneath AWARDED TO. This example may have originated from leftover stockin the Alumni office, or been distributed to an area school but never officially conferred upon a student. The obverse, featuring a bust of Washington but otherwise not associated with WashingtonUniversity, may also have been paired with a different reverse die than that depicted here.

Sallay has not yet discovered an example of an awarded Washington University Alumni medal. Based on the figures in the Alumni Bulletin, one can reasonably infer a population of a fewhundred pieces distributed in the 1930s. Of these, perhaps half survive today, most likely handed down within the families of the original honorees.

For more information on the history of Washington University in St. Louis, see:
https://wustl.edu/about/history-traditions/