The Circle of Friends of the Medallion (1908-1915) society was the first organized group that seriously attempted to promote interest in medallic art in the United States. Earlier attempts at popularizing medals, for example the short-lived, three-issue American Art-Union (1847-1849), had failed and America just did not seem ready for a medallic society akin to the successful Art-Union of London.

The medal and coin collector Robert Hewitt, Jr. of New York had been following the European art medal societies with great interest. In 1908 he joined with veteran writer and arts organizer Charles de Kay to found a similar organization in the United States. They named their organization the Circle of Friends of the Medallion and planned to issue two medals per year on a subscription basis. One year later, in 1909, they were finally ready to launch with a charter membership group of 500 individuals.

The process by which sculptors and subjects were chosen was highly unbureaucratic. A committee of members, called the Art Committee, chose a subject and attempted to recruit a sculptor to render it. There were no competitions between proposals submitted by different sculptors. The sculptor was given great freedom. The only expectation was that he would do his best and that the medal bearing the sculptor's name would exemplify his particular style and strengths.

The finished medals were distributed in little brown books that included a few pages of background, explanations, or sculptor's remarks. De Kay was particularly emphatic about the merits of this distribution mechanism. In his experience, medal owners frequently had no display cabinets and were generally at a loss to recall where a medal was, if it was required.

The Circle chose the budding Medallic Art Company of New York to produce their medals. In 1909 it only existed as a division of Deitsch Brothers, a maker of leather handbags that were decorated with embossed ornaments so popular at the time. The brothers Henri and Felix Weil were the metal workers in this division and bought the company from Deitsch brothers in 1910 after the first two issues had been struck under the Medallic Art/Deitsch label. Unfortunately for the Weil brothers, the Circle of Friends contract was sold separately to Davison's of Philadelphia. Davison struck all issues from 3 to 11 before the Circle finally returned to Medallic Art Company for the last issue in 1915.

The Circle vanished rather abruptly and unexpectedly in 1915. They had plans for several more medals but nothing came of them. Circle members were left without the organizing core that had kept medals coming. This was to be the state of affairs for fifteen years until former Circle subscriber George Dupont Pratt co-founded the Society of Medalists in 1929.

As I am writing this section, we have just passed the 100 year mark since the last medal of the series was published. The Circle of Friends medals have proven their lasting appeal through the decades since. Not that you really need further proof of their artistic merit, but John Marqusee, a famous medallic art collector, had all but the elusive Abdul Baha plaquette in his collection.

 

Collecting Circle of Friends of the Medallion

For the collector, the Circle of Friends series is attractive for several reasons:

• The medals are highly appealing and very decorative. Many are represented in museum and college collections.
• The medals generally trade between $100 and $500. As there are only twelve of them, you can complete the series without beggaring yourself.
• There is a decent amount of trading at almost all times, so it won't take you forever to build or dispose of your collection by dealer or auction. With a little bit of luck, I have been able to almost complete the series in a year. (It has since slowed down a bit; I might have been lucky.)
• The medals have held their value well over time.
• Once you have completed your basic collection, you can branch out into the variants. Some medals exhibit variations in patina and edge lettering, depending on where and when they were struck.
• There is an authoritative guide in the form of David Thomason Alexander's book that tells you all you want or need to know about the medals.

But most of all, the medals are really enjoyable and that's of course the only reason you should collect them. If you hold them for a long time, they probably won't be a bad investment either.

 

Next Steps

1. Take a look at all the medals in the other tabs of this page. There are two tabs that lead to pictures: Medals and Visual. The Medals tab leads to a paged list (by default groups of 10) that shows both sides and provides access to documentation and details. The Visual tab leads to a grid of obverse medal images. From there you can easily identify a medal visually and then click through to the detail information.
2. Contact me if you are interested in buying or selling medals or want to help me improve the site. I am always interested in buying to complete or improve my own collection. Sometimes I have duplicates that I would be willing to sell. If you cannot or will not sell medals that I still need, at least share your high-quality pictures so I can complete the Variants display section. If I don't have a picture for a medal, I probably don't own the medal and I would be interested in buying it.
3. Check out the links in the Resources tab.
4. Support this site with a small donation if you appreciate it as a resource and want to help me with hosting and bandwidth costs.