Définition

• Assay Medal.  A medal from the series formed of the yearly presentation pieces bestowed upon the members of the United States Assay Commission. The medals were issued continuously from 1860 to 1977 when under an economy move the commission was disbanded by President Jimmy Carter.
  Assay medals show a diverse variety of metallurgical and minting scenes;
  portraits appeared from 1876 to the end of the series (predominantly U.S. presidents and mint officials). The Assay Commission was a citizens' committee, appointed by the president and charged with checking the weight, fineness and tolerance of American coinage, a custom traced to the British Trial of the Pyx. The commission never numbered more than a few dozen members; hence U.S. Assay medals are scarce, widely scattered and few collections are known to exist.

  excerpted with permission from

  An Encyclopedia of Coin and Medal Technology

  For Artists, Makers, Collectors and Curators

  COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY D. WAYNE JOHNSON

  Roger W. Burdette, Editor

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