Calendar medals have a long tradition going back to the 17th century. The idea for a durable object that could be carried around easily and would provide a calendar for quick reference was developed more or less simultaneously in several different countries.

Depending on the size of the medal and the design, a calendar medal usually held six months or the entire year in a format that would allow a quick lookup of the day of the week for a given date. Additionally, the major Christian holidays were frequently listed as abbreviated dates. Early calendar medals often just showed the dates of the year's Sundays, those days being important for religious observations and also sufficient to quickly calculate all the other days.

Over the centuries calendar medals slowly lost their utility but the idea stayed alive and they were reinvented as collectible objects. When calendar medals only had the calendar on them, they were certainly collectible, but really only by specialists. By combining an appealing design on one side with a calendar panel on the other, the appearance of utility was maintained while creating a medallic object that also appealed to a larger audience.

Some cultures had a greater and more lasting affinity to calendar medals than others. Austrians seemed to like calendar medals throughout the first half of the 20th century. The Austrian calendar medals from that time can be quite beautiful and are very collectible. French mints have created calendar art medals throughout the years and there are some truly spectacular modern designs available. As far as I can tell, American mints got back into the calendar art medal business in the 1970s and stopped making them in the 2000s.

The Medallic Art Company started issuing calendar medals in 1975, with a medal by Frank Eliscu that had "Natural Life" as its theme. When the decision on the subject for 1976 had to be made, there was very little doubt about what it would be: 1976 was the year of the American Bicentennial celebrations. Needless to say that the following two calendar medal issues were patriotically themed.

Marcel Jovine was the artists who dominated the field of Medallic Art Company calendar medals for many years. He designed fourteen of MACo's first sixteen issues. Jovine once said:

"I liked doing the yearly calendar medal. I could count on receiving this commission. I had a whole year to think about the theme of the next year’s medal."

I don't know why the Medallic Art Company chose to interrupt his run by muling a Society of Medalists medal's obverse by Edward R. Grove with a calendar reverse for a second calendar medal dated 1983! Maybe the sculptor and the company could not agree on terms and the company demonstrated that they were willing to go with a different sculptor?

While calendar medals have traditionally had themes related to time or astrology, the Medallic Art Company liked to set a multi-year theme, sometimes executed by one artist. One such theme was the "Animal Life," designed and sculpted by Don Everhart II, which spanned the years from 1993 to 1997. Another was "The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World" which ran from 1998 to 2004 and employed different artists throughout the series.

Marcel Jovine did not create a thematical series but he certainly created a series in terms of stylistic cohesion. Most of his calendar medals bear a segemented or rotational design that shows scenes or details arranged around the medal's rim.

In addition to the annual calendar medals, the Medallic Art Company also created proprietary calendar medals for corporate customers. It can be a bit confusing for a new collector to see multiple calendar medals from one maker for the same year. Usually, only one of them will be the "annual calendar medal" and all others are proprietary issues that were created for a specific customer. You are of course free to treat all of them as generic calendar medals and collect them together.

As with most of MACo's medals, different calendar medal variants were available for purchase. With a few exceptions, all of MACo's calendar medals are roughly 3 inches (76mm) in diameter and were struck in bronze. A couple of issues also have larger diameter medallions that were struck in limited editions. For some of the early years I know of gold-plated bronze variants. I assume that the pure silver variant was offered in all years but I can't be certain. While bronze pieces come up with nice regularity, the silver and gold-plated variants appear to be pretty rare. I almost never see them on eBay and only rarely at auctions. It probably has to do with how expensive they were: the silver variants in the late '90s and early '00s retailed for between $169 and $189!

While I still find the later MACo calendar medals very appealing, they lack some of the subtlety of the earlier issues, they seem to be "blunter," for lack of a better word. I don't know whether it is just the difference in sculptors or whether the advent of digital design tools has something to do with it.

Till its demise in 2018, the Medallic Art Company offered a range of stock calendar medal obverses that could be combined with a calendar on the reverse. I fear that the days of artistic annual calendar medals are largely over for now. Maybe we will see a renaissance when companies flush with cash are looking to support artists and do "something new and exciting" for their brand, thereby causing a calendar medal revival (I'm not getting my hopes up too much).

The Franklin Mint started issuing calendar medals in the sixties, a good decade before the Medallic Art Company decided to compete in that segment of the medallic market. The first calendar medals all bore the portrait of Benjamin Franklin and are therefore somewhat different in character from later, annually unique issues. The Franklin portrait was designed by Gilroy Roberts, the former U.S. Mint engraver and, starting in 1965, Chief Engraver and Chairman of the Board of the Franklin Mint.

The real unique art calendar medal series appears to have begun in 1973. Most of the Franklin Mint calendar medals followed a theme of "time" that they explored in different ways. Two issues (1974 and '75) did it through a traditional zodiac medal that focused on the passing of the year itself, another (1981) through a story like the old "Rip van Winkle" tale, yet another through the depiction of evolution or ageing (1977).

Ernest Lauser and Don Everhart II were two artists who were called upon multiple times.

For some of the medals I know neither designer nor sculptor. While Franklin Mint's earlier calendar medals often listed the designers and sculptors who had contributed to the medal in the accompanying leaflet, that was not the case for later medals. Also, I am missing leaflets for several of the later medals, so while the information might be available in general, I am not aware of it. Any assistance with completing the medal records would be appreciated.

The Medalcraft Mint can be regarded as the successor to the Medallic Art Company because they purchased a lot of bankrupt MACo's dies in 2018. Independent of that transaction they issued calendar medals as early as 1987 (at least that's the first one that I know of). I have not been able to find a thematic thread that runs through Medalcraft's calendar medals but that might be due to the small number of issues that I have encountered so far. The ones that I have seen seem to take their thematic cues from year-specific events like centennials or turn to time-related themes like the seasons.

I really know very little about the series. Any assistance with completing the medal records would be appreciated.

Just recently I stumbled accross calendar medals struck by the Hoffman Mint. I don't know whether I had always missed them before or whether they don't show up very frequently because they are rare. I am attempting to find out more about these medals. At least in the 1990s the medals seemed to be largely animal-centric, with particular focus on wildlife.