ANS ALFRED S. ROBINSON DIE GROUP

With many thanks, a recent archival donation given by Roman Golebiowski helped answer several questions regarding a long-held donation of medallic dies from the 1860s in the ANS collection. A two-sided handwritten letter dated May 23, 1896 from Frank DeWette Andrews to Bauman L. Belden—at the time, the ANS librarian who later became the secretary, council member, and director—provides insight into how the ANS acquired the dies and even into the finished pieces themselves.

According to the accession books in the ANS Archives, the 12 dies were officially accepted into the collection on June 11, 1896, and given the accession group number of 1896.29. This is significant because the dies have long since been divorced from one another. The obverse and reverses were not only separated, but all of the dies were scattered in the die cabinet unattributed. Once digitization of the ANS collection began in the early 1980s, the dies were given numbers from the 0000.999 accession group—indicating that their accession history was unknown by that point—and they were not given consecutive numbers—indicating that their relation to one another was also lost. The recently donated letter allows us to reattribute them to the same donation from June 1896. The medals have now been reassigned with their proper numbers.

The "1733" Rosa Americana copy issued ca. 1860 by Alfred S. Robinson. 34.0 mm.

1860 Fireman's Medal issued by Alfred S. Robinson. 31.0 mm.

Additionally, the letter discusses various compositions and mintage figures for two of the medals—the 1733 Rosa Americana copy and the 1860 Fireman's Medal. Outside of official U.S. Mint records, such information is often lost to history, or never known to begin with. Metallic compositions are often only known through extant pieces, and mintage figures for privately issued pieces are rarely recorded. Now knowing the actual compositions and mintage figures for two of the medals represented in this group of dies is significant.

The dies are of low preservation quality, and this was intentional. The faces of the dies have been "destroyed by being well battered," as the letter states, showing that this had already occurred prior to 1896 and, in all likelihood, not long after the medals were struck in the 1860s. This was done to prevent restrikes from being made. In his advertisements, Robinson would sometimes note how many medals were produced while also indicating that the dies were destroyed in order to preserve their rarity. Despite the intentions to destroy the design, some elements are still identifiable, allowing for positive identification to be made for all 12 dies from the 1896 donation. The ANS accession book noted that the dies were "defaced."

Alfred S. Robinson (1836–78) was a banker at the Banking House of George P. Bissell & Company in Hartford, Connecticut, and later under his own name, as well as a coin dealer and auction cataloger. It is not known exactly when he became interested in numismatics, but by 1860 he had acquired a famed 1737 Higley copper for his collection for $50—a price that made it into the local newspapers. That same year, he began issuing a series of medals, known as the Alfred S. Robinson Historical Series, that included a total of six medals issued through 1863. Three of the dies from the 1896 donation—those for the Clay, Washington, and "Old Hickory" medals come from the Historical Series. In total, Robinson issued several dozen different medals throughout his numismatic career.

To read the complete article, see:
Recent Archival Donation Answers Questions About 1896 Donation of Dies (https://numismatics.org/pocketchange/recent-archival-donation-answers-questions-about-1896-donation-of-dies/)

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