Pierce Coin found at Hershey

My belief is that these coins were reproduced at some point, I do not think they are original.

I have two of them, one a “rough” casting, the other seemingly plated in gold. The plated one has a small hole at the top for some reason. The issue that I see (and was pointed out to me by another PAS member) is that the Pierce information is cast into the medal, not engraved. The original was probably a real gold piece, and would have been engraved with the winner’s information.

All that said, I have no idea when these were made, and no one I’ve talked to can add any information. Thus, if you want to believe it’s real, go right ahead. I don’t feel it is, and they’ll be included in an article I’m writing for the magazine about fakes.

Here is a photo of the test.

http://digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A199328

Richard, I’m only offering my opinion. Look how faint the “George N Pierce Co” and the word “Pierce” are…if I had just won this test, I’d be fairly disappointed if this were the coin or medal they handed to me as an award.

My belief is that, possibly, someone had an original coin, and used it as a casting pattern to make numerous replicated coins.

I would love to think that I, too, have an original coin, and the gold plated one that I have would be the front runner, but alas, I feel they are fakes.

John, did you get that transmission home? I was standing by it earlier in the day, cash in pocket, and all I could think about was sheesh, that sucker was heavy with bell housing and pedals and all. I was also with a friend who’d actually had my transmission apart (as a reference while restoring a similar car at White Post Restorations), and when he said “I don’t think you need it” I listened!

There are better memorabilia collections out there, but I am proud of mine, and have some interesting stuff. One thing I’ve concentrated on is getting the give aways from dealers (solid things), and documentation from each dealer (paper things, such as business cards). I’ll work on how to best present these…and prefer to do articles, as that’s a permanent record…

Thanks for putting me to work! dc

David,

Yes, I got it home and it was actually easy to drive into the chocolate field to get it. My family has a spot in the orange field and I had an orange field sticker on my car. Having never purchased a HEAVY item at Hershey I wasn’t certain what was involved in retrieving it. I had a two wheel shopping bag cart with me when I looked at the transmission, but knew that wouldn’t work with that heavy part. I was told by an official that you simply pull up to the entrance of the field you want to get into between 4:00 and 5:00 PM, show them a receipt, explain you are picking up a heavy item and in you go!

With foot traffic being down at Hershey, I pulled out of our spot in the orange field at 3:45, loaded the transmission in the chocolate field and was out of the chocolate field by 4:10 PM! Absolutely amazing, I thought it would take an hour with foot and automobile traffic!

While the transmission obviously came out of a junkyard 50 years ago, it was in wonderful condition inside (better than the one in my car). What a relief given that the guy was funny about having me take off the top cover (with the tools I brought with me).

I am going to mark all shafts and gears and take it fully apart to see if I can find the timing marks in this 1931 transmission. If I find them, this transmission is going in my car.

Richard, you bring up an interesting point, did the PAMCC reproduce these medals? That would be interesting. The mystery in this is just that, who did make what I’m considering a “replicated” medal (again, my opinion).

Here’s a mention of the same 1903 medal, taken from the Internet:

“The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers conducts an Endurance Test from Chicago to Pittsburgh, and the Columbia Car driven by Bert Holcomb wins a Gold Medal. “

In 1903, if it was stated a “gold medal”, then my belief is that it would probably be solid gold, possibly gold plated. The coin you have, and one of the ones I have, appear to be unfinished, “rough” castings. The one I have that is plated appears to be gold, but the Pierce information becomes very faint, not what one would expect from an original.

It’s possible Pierce reproduced and handed out. I have heard that there are more such coins floating around, although I can’t verify that. Without provenance, they’re interesting, but not very valuable. When I first found mine, I was excited thinking they were the real thing, but time and research has cooled that feeling. I’m still glad to have anything Pierce related in hand!

Here are pictures of the Columbia coin, which still exists. Not the fact that it appears to be very much gold or gold plated, and the engraving is significantly deeper than the Pierce medals we’re discussing.

I’ve also copied a link to the Internet page, in case pictures don’t work out

http://www.kcstudio.com/lld.html

Note on the Columbia medal the detail of the rim inside the outer bead, with the outer bead representing a tire. The small projection on the non-engraved side, on the rim, is the valve stem for the tire.

Note how much more detailed the Columbia coin is in those respects than our Pierce coins.

I do think that ours were cast from an original, which would cause the loss of detail. Did PAMCC do it? That’s a great theory, as no one so far in the Society remembers any such project.

And, I agree on value, I think ours are curiosities with but small value. The original, if found, would be a different story!

Since I weighed the 1901-1911 medal, I weighed these two 1903 medals too….1 ounce for the unplated one, 1.1 ounce for the plated one…so if that’s 0.1 ounce of gold, there’s some value!!

The Columbia coin is an original, and shows much more detail than our coins. I don’t know of other coins, but would bet there are both more originals and more of the replicated coins out there.