Hawaiian Statehood Medal (1959)

This was the second medal issued by the Heraldic Art Company and the last one Rebeck was involved in.  Only the reverse (pictured on the left) was modeled by Rebeck.  The obverse was modeled by Walter A. Sinz, also a Cleveland sculptor.  Halfway through the production of the Hawaiian Medals, McNamara was visited by the Secret Service.  His commemoratives, though having a higher content of silver, were of the same diameter and thickness of US half dollars.  Production was stopped until a slightly thicker version was begun.  Thus there is both a thick and a think variety of this medal.  There are about 4600 thin medals and 1200 thick as well as 36 gold medals (all thin).

REFERENCES:

Johnson, D. Wayne.  “Heraldic Art Medal Series.”  Unpublished article.

Sanfilippo, Gino.  “So Called Half Dollars” TAMS Journal. January 1997, p. 17-21.

http://www.heraldicartmedals.com