The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 49, November 20, 2005, Article 11

GEORGE F. KUNZ OF TIFFANY'S

Roger Burdette writes: “To expand a bit on Dick Johnson's
expedition into Tiffany's medal archives. Dr. George F.
Kunz was a VP at Tiffany's during the early part of the
twentieth century. Although his primary title was
associated with gems and minerals, he also ran the very
lucrative medal department that was supervised by Karl
Hanwebber.

Kunz was an avid numismatist and had connections to
the Smithsonian and Museum of Natural History in NY.
He was known to Theodore Roosevelt through TR's interest
in mineral collecting. He was a buddy of ANS benefactor
Huntington and headed the ANS committee on new coinage
designs. Kunz was a direct advisor to President Roosevelt
on the Saint-Gaudens designs. He and Hanwebber met with
Roosevelt on several occasions in 1906 and 1907. He
was put on the 1907 Assay Commission specifically to
gain inside knowledge of the Philadelphia Mint and
was likely, along with Victor Brenner who was also
on the Assay Commission, one of the first people to
see the MCMVII extremely high relief gold double
eagles made in early February 1907.

Many of the Saint-Gaudens and related specimens in
the ANS collection were provided by Kunz, contrary
to what the item tags might say. He actively solicited
specimens of the new gold coins from Mint Directors
Roberts, Leach and Secretary Cortelyou, and it is
probably through Kunz' efforts that the progress
strike electrotypes of the EHR coins still exist.

Kunz remained active in numismatics through 1917 and
played a minor role in approving the 1916 silver coin
designs, even reviewing the work and making suggestions
for changes to Hermon MacNeil and Adolph Weinman.

Kunz' personal papers are scattered between the
Smithsonian AMNH, Museum of American History (NY),
ANS (in the Huntington papers) and Tiffany's archive,
although much of his numismatic writing appears to
have been lost. Readers of my book "Renaissance of
American Coinage 1916-1921" and the next volume
covering 1905-1908 (planned for release in Feb. 2006)
will find George Kunz and Tiffany's medal department
involved throughout the coinage redesign project.
(George Kunz' continuing reputation is in gems and
minerals. Over time, his writings have been sifted
and diced and edited to where his work at Tiffany's
and ANS have been almost completely obscured. He
published nothing in numismatics under his own name,
although he appears to have collaborated with many
well-known numismatic authors.)

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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