The profile of John F. Kennedy can be seen at the Iao Valley State Park on Maui, Hawaii. The rock formation was made the obverse design of the 1977 Maui Coin Club medal. Medal is listed as 2M-308 in Hawaiian Money Standard Catalog 2nd Edition by Medcalf and Russell. The Maui Coin Club was went inactive in 1981.

This is a revision of a few of the coin book reviews I published a while ago. These reviews are longer and add more facts and such. Enjoy!

I'm working a side project to  catalog the Royal Hawaiian Mint issues relating to Crown Princess Ka'iulani of the Kingdom Hawai'i.  This catalog is roughly 90% complete. However, I spotted what seems to be a new variety being listed at an online  auction website. I purchased this specimen to confirm and document this variety. I was right. I spotted this repunched date a mile away (auction image was not of high quality). I snapped a few close-up pictures after I received the specimen.  This is the second repunched date identified in the Crown Princess Ka'iulani of the Kingdom Hawai'i issues by the Royal Hawaiian Mint.

If you Google the term "special government medal" or "sGm" or "special medals for US government agencies" your search result relating to the Bureau of the Mint or United States Mint will be empty. However, if you search the term "POTUS sGm" you will get a hit to my website (discusses a particular type of "special government medal" of which I have ongoing research). This empty search result  points out that these common terms  are  unused and uncommon term within the US numismatic community. However, if you review each of the  Annual Reports of the Director of the Mint (if you have the time) you will see this term is used often to describe a function of the Bureau of the Mint/United States Mint. What is a "special government medal (sGm)"? The term "special medals for US government agencies" relates to the third official manufacturing function of the Bureau of the Mint/United States Mint.  The three blog images provides an introduction to this third official manufacturing function of the Bureau of the Mint/United States Mint.The final image with the examples of "special government medals" drives the point of this blog entry. There is no numismatic work that identifies nor catalogs all  results from the third official manufacturing function of the Bureau of the Mint (or United States Mint). The final images also provides evidence of the connection between the Bureau of the Mint and multiple United States Government agencies with Frank Gasparro as the common thread as the designer of these three represented "special Government medals". 

Here for you to enjoy, I hope, is a 1925 Norse American Medal-Thick. I have been lusting after this medal for quite a few years. I was never able to find an example that I liked and could afford at the same time. Well my luck held and I found this at my regular coin dealer this last weekend. Now I love my guy but he isn't cheap. That's O.K. 'cause I know it and he gives me tons of knowledge and advise and some other perks.. For some reason this medal was in my price range and grade a MS 64. Well above a grade I hoped to obtain. The medals were struck to commemorate the anniversary of the Restuaration, which brought Norwegian immigrants to the United States a century earlier. The medals came in different sized planchets, thick and thin. There were also some made in gold but most gold ones were melted down. The thick ones have a mintage of 33,750. The medal was designed by James Earle Fraser in .900 silver. My example also has a bit of toning that didn't come through on the photos. Looking forward to your thoughts. Thanks for looking.