1904 Army MOH prototype

[bulldog06]

I acquired a file of interesting information on the development of the 1904 Army Medal of Honor.

 

Photos and a War Department Contract with Bailey Banks and Biddle (BB&B) suggest that what is currently identified as a prototype medal is actually one piece of a 3000 medal production run made by BB&B in 1904.

 

This photo has been published previously.

 

 

Photo from my collection

 

The dark planchet medal on the left is usually identified as a rejected prototype.

 

Here is another photo from my collection of the two medals on the left.

 

 

 

Also in the file was a copy of a January 3, 1905 contract between the War Department and BB&B. The contract was signed by Brigadier General William Crozier, Chief of Ordnance for the Secretary of War, and Joseph Bailey, president of BB&B.

 

The contract states several things relevant to the medal in the photograph:

 

- On July 9, 1904 BB&B agreed to manufacture 3000 Army Medals of Honor.

 

- Under the July 9, 1904 contract, BB&B was paid to engrave “The Congress To” on 3000 medals

 

- Those medals were unsatisfactory to the Secretary of War.

 

- In “the best interest of the United States…”,  the July 9, 1904 contract is discontinued.

 

- A new contract is necessary to manufacture 3000 medals with a revised specification.

 

- The Army will pay BB&B for the labor and materials produced under the July 9, 1904 contract.

 

- The Army will pay BB&B $5000 additional dollars to manufacture 3000 new medals per a sample approved by the Assistant Secretary of War on December 17, 1904.

 

- BB&B will deliver 500 medals per month to the Army starting in April 1905.

 

 

 

Authors collection

 

The July 9, 1904 contract (and specification for the medal) referenced was not part of the file.

 

Other 1904 documents provide evidence of the specification BB&B would have used to produce the first 3000 medals in 1904.

 

The below specification was approved by the Secretary of War on January, 28, 1904.

Authors collection

 

General Gillespie’s patent was filed on March 9, 1904 and granted on November 22, 1904. Accessed online.

 

 

 

The Medal of Honor Legion convention booklet (photo sourced on the internet) from September 1904 shows the “new” Army medal.

 

 

These images strongly resemble the dark bronze medal shown in the first two photographs.

 

Unless a different 1904 Army MOH specification is found, I believe that the bronze medal is from the first 3000 medals manufactured in 1904.

 

Unknown is what happened to those 3000 medals rejected by the Army. The January 3, 1905 contract directs BB&B to use the “bars, ribbons, pins and cases” produced as part of the July 1904 contract. It makes no mention of the planchets. Is it possible that BB&B reworked and used the eagle/ Valor bars for the 1905 production? Could this explain why the 1905 planchets darken differently than the eagle/ Valor bars?

 

Mike