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Stone Mountain Children Founders Roll Medal, 1925


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An object a lot of folks aren't familiar with these medals/coins were a big deal when the monument was being planned and built.

 

Stone Mountain Children Founders Roll Medal, 1925. Bronze, 32mm, pierced for suspension. After Gutzon Borglum.

 

Obv. Equestrian figures of Confederate States President Jefferson Davis, Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson riding l. above Children's Founders Roll inscription. This roll consisted of youngsters who gave $1 each toward the gigantic sculpture depicted in part on this medal, raising $35,019.91 in all. Rev. A classic urn flames on a pedestal before a pillared portico, ENTRANCE/ TO/ MEMORIAL HALL, incuse countermarks VA, 1927. Struck by Whitehead & Hoag, Newark, N.J. This fascinating medal shows a number and Virginia counterstamp similar to those found on a very few Stone Mountain half dollars sold at auction to benefit the struggling memorial project.

This medal is of the greatest importance to collectors of U.S. commemorative coins, relating to the 1925 Stone Mountain half dollar which shows only two figures from sculptor Borglum's grandiose plan. When completed, the Stone Mountain Memorial was to have included a titanic mountainside sculpture with the three equestrian figures, more than 35 Confederate generals and winding files of infantry and cavalry, with a solid rock Memorial Hall and amphitheater at the base of this mile-wide, 867 foot high granite mountain. This was to be the greatest monumental sculpture in the world, paid for in part by sale of the half dollars at $1 each. The project foundered thanks to infighting between sculptor and committee, internal corruption and squandering of funds actually raised and the reversion of the mountain to its original owners, the Venable family. Sculptor Augustus Lukeman failed to complete the statuary, which is shown quite differently on the coin and medal. Borglum died in 1941 after his great success in carving Mount Rushmore in the hills of South Dakota. A somewhat smaller version of the Stone Mountain Memorial was finally completed in 1970 by sculptor Walker Hancock. (Stack's coins)

 

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Nice medal with the card. Finding the two together is probably very unusual.

 

The Stone Mountain Living Confederate Veteran medal is almost identical. It was struck with " Living Veterans' Roll " on the obverse

and U.C.V. 1927 on the reverse.

 

 

Wharf

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Stone Mountain Memorial literature...These are part of a large archive of material from one of the founding member chapter presidents. Ed

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  • 1 year later...

Here is an example of the Stone Mountain Memorial US 50 cent piece. It is shown along with the original ad and paperwork.

 

 

Stone Mountain insert.JPG

Stone Mountain coin reverse.JPG

Stone mountain coin obverse.JPG

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