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The E-Sylum: Volume 16, Number 51, December 15, 2013, Article 24

QUERY: NUMISMATIC ITEMS PICTURING TURKEYS SOUGHT

I missed this for our Thanksgiving issue, but wanted to mention this "turkey of a medal" from Joe Levine's November 21, 2013 email Token and Medal Fixed Price list (sorry, this one's sold). Joe can be reached at jlevine968@aol.com . The list contained a number of Society of Medallists medals. This one is the only medal I know of with an image of a turkey. Are there others? What about on coins, tokens or paper money? -Editor

Turkey medal by Albert Laessle obverse Turkey medal by Albert Laessle reverse

AMERICAN TURKEY - SOCIETY OF MEDALISTS ISSUE #10, 1934.
73.3mm. Bronze. Albert Laessle, Sc. (Medallic Art Co.). Uncirculated. Obverse: American turkey. Reverse: Abundance, corn stalk. 1,021 struck. Original pamphlet.

The artist’s intent was to symbolize the abundance of America. “On the obverse is the turkey. Native to this country, it is especially connected in our minds with Thanksgiving, for it was a gift of the new world to the early settlers. ... I have depicted the turkey with ruffled feathers, in pride and the vigor of its youth symbolizing the growth of Young America.

The corn on the reverse side of this medal, is also indigenous to America, having been presented by the Indians to the first settlers. There is something especially beautiful about the growing corn, with its long leaves rustling in the wind. The flower appears, and finally the ear,--the apotheosis of the corn. The ear of corn which I have depicted in triumphant,--rhythmic with the pulse of life. It symbolizes true wealth. It is the culmination of the harvest, when man, flushed by his labors in the summer sun, gathers to his granaries the fruits of the earth. The turkey and the corn thus seem to me most fully to symbolize the abundance which the name of American signifies among the nations.” $79.50

Wayne Homren, Editor

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