Fraudulently Engraved Specially Meritorious Medals

[usmedalman]

Allen Menke and I did an extensive article on the Specially Meritorious Medal for Roger Bender's magazine. Unfortunately Roger passed away before the article could be published and the future of his publishing business will be in limbo for quite some time. So, I would like to use this forum to pass on some information we uncovered in our research concerning fraudulently engraved SMMs.

 

The fact that only the U.S. Mint medals were officially engraved and that the J. K. Davison’s Sons die is the only type we have seen with suspicious engraving, this is the first indication that these medals were fraudulently engraved. We have examined five Davison’s-made Specially Meritorious Medals with engraving and in all cases, these have turn out to be fakes. Two medals were examined in person and three were reviewed from photographs. In all cases the engraving is the same except for the name and rating and appears to have been done by the same person. The medal to Cavanaugh pictured here was purchased during the 1965 Orders and Medals Society of America annual convention in California directly from George Studley and was sold as a fake. A medal to Ralph Lockwood, landsman, was sold in a January 2004 Stack’s auction and purported to be original. Three other fakes; to John Garrett, “coxswain”, William Murphy “coxswain” and Gustof Lenz, landsman also have been observed. In all cases, the medals are Davison’s pieces and all have been engraved in a style similar to original 1904 issued SMMs—but with noticeable differences.

 

In addition to all the die discrepancies evident on the Davison’s die, which is the first indicator that these are not original engraved medals, the names on these fraudulently engraved pieces do not appear on any of the lists of authorized recipients. In the case of the medal shown below, Francis Cavanaugh is not on the authorized list of SMM recipients nor is he on any of the Sampson Medal rolls (which would be a requirement for qualifying for the SMM). Also, the rating of coxswain, which is misspelled as coxwain on the original Bureau of Navigation list included in the 30 January 1904 letter to the Mint for engraving, and therefore misspelled on all original SMMs to sailors of that rating, is spelled correctly on this fake. The spurious piece named to Ralph Lockwood with a rating of landsman also does not appear in any of the SMM authorization letters or on any Sampson Medal roll. Also, all fraudulent engravings we observed are missing the comma after the recipient’s name and after the word "from" on the first line of the citation. Also, on original medals, there is a comma after Santiago and also after Cuba; whereas on the fakes the comma following Cuba is usually missing and sometimes even the comma after Santiago.

[Jim T]

    I can't believe that I missed this topic (and I can't believe I'm inside on this beautiful spring day). 

   The SMM has been a white-whale for me lo these many decades. I'm not sure how clear they will translate but here are some old shots I dug up of my "filler". It too was purchased directly from Mr. Studley but at the 1963 OMSA convention. 

   I gotta rationalize that it is a beautiful strike; Davison did excellent work. And I always liked the patina (the one photo is lighter patina because of excessive lighting). Like the others shown above, the engraved name does not appear on any of the ships rolls; for all I know it was George's barber. 

  Icing on the cake is that I re-ribboned it many moons ago with a replacement supplied byTom Halpin. Tom lived in my village just before he moved to Los Vegas; for that reason I call it my Especial Meritorious Medal. But is is a quality replacement: note the unbound edges. And it is a deep blood red. 

    To quote the kids today: it is what it is. 

    And we're celebrating our 50th anniversary together next year. 

 

 

Jim T

 

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[Jim T]

Pardon me:   60th anniversary

 

( some math major huh? )

 

 

[MottTheHoople]

The most interesting thing for me is that these fakes were done 60+ years ago.   Out of curiosity, how much was Studley selling these for in the 60's?

[Jim T]

 

Wow, tough to stretch my memory that far back....$35 seemed to immediately come to mind....my father had to buy the medals because I was way under age. But not near $50 for sure. His brand of MNo. numbered campaign were like $7.50. Army, Navy or Marine: didn't matter.

 

Entry level. within reach to hook a new collector.  

 

Then he handed us off to Leonard Babin (Rochester NY) for AIT: number/ribbon variations.  

 

But it was fun thinking you got something.

 

And honestly, Average Joe looking at our stuff wouldn't know right from wrong. 

 

But it's still fun. 

 

Jim

 

[usmedalman]

Thanks for sharing you piece and the fun story of George and Tom. Davison did indeed do good work. I dare say, with 60 years of patina (lets not call it ageing) your piece would fool a lot of collectors.