�President Eisenhower awarded/gifted a special Government medal (sGm)� during his visit to Hawaii from June 20-25, 1960. My research has shown that: 1. Only 400 medals were struck by the Philadelphia Mint. 2. The medal was designed by Frank Gasparro.3. The medal is the first U.S. Mint product to bear the design element for the State of Hawaii (not to be confused with the Kingdom of Hawaii or the Territory of Hawaii).4. Only 267 survived and are available to collectors.This information may seem trivial now, but it was undocumented for over a half-century. More importantly, the medal itself is a presidential artifact. Better yet, a presidential numismatic artifact. Even better, a presidential numismatic artifact personally awarded by the President himself. Better than better is the fact that the medal is tied to the first visit by a President to the State of Hawaii, and the same President that signed into law the establishment of the 50th state. In other words, the medal is tied directly to a US historical events and the Office of the President of the United States.The images and newspaper documents President Eisenhower's visit to the State of Hawaii. The medal is in my collection.There is a another interesting story about the cancelled Alaska medal...It would have been nice to have a sGm that represented the 49th state (of which President Eisenhower also visited earlier on June 12-13, 1960 and signed into law the establishment of the 49th state.

This is not a science fiction nor spy thriller blog entry. It's a blog entry that once again discusses "The Manufacturing Triad of the Bureau of the Mint (BoM)". In this "episode", the medals of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the topic of focus. � It's obviously known that the CIA is an agency of the U.S. Government. The question posed for discussion is: Can it be proven that the BOM �manufactured the initial CIA award medals?

In my previous blog entry it was not obviously mentioned, but the point needs to be made.� The items manufactured (coins for commerce, national medals, and special medals for U.S. Government agencies)� are official Bureau of the Mint issues. To put it simply, they are designed, struck, and issued� by the U.S. Government itself. � The manufacturing triad DOES NOT include any issues physically manufactured outside the U.S. Government.At the 2017 ANA World's Fair of Money, it was incorrectly pointed out that I missed the inclusion of the non-U.S. Government issued President Lyndon Johnson medals (manufactured by Medallic Art Company (MACO). To make it perfectly clear, the identifier sGm (acronym for special Government medal) was created based on the term� "special medals for U.S. Government agencies" by rearranging� and eliminating specific words. Therefore, when you encounter the acronym "sGm" or the term "special Government medal"� it must be understood that the medal was physically manufactured and issued� by the U.S. Government. There is a rather large knowledge gap in U.S. numismatics. Special medals for U.S. Government agencies, special Government medals, or simply sGms have not been cataloged nor documented properly in U.S. numismatics. I've seen many Eisenhower POTUS sGm specimens with remnants of acid testing , cleaning, and other mishandling. It can be said that the sGm knowledge gap� aided in the decimation of remaining POTUS sGm population. Majority of collectors and dealers simply do not known what they are.� However, there is another area that has fallen to� into a bigger problem, part of our U.S. history is being lost.� Many of the original recipients� of the Eisenhower POTUS sGms have passed away resulting in their knowledge being lost forever.I brought up this subject (the lost history of sGms) to a retired U.S. history professor (lectured at a major west coast university and an ardent President Eisenhower admirer) and was totally amazed that I documented� medals unknown to U.S. historians and are newly discovered/found presidential period artifacts.� He pointed out that I was in uncharted waters of President Eisenhower history. � This had me go into a deep dive to locate any mention of the Eisenhower POTUS sGms in published literature from 1958 through 1961. There is an empty sea of knowledge in this period literature.� I added an image of� text (prefer to keep the source unknown for the moment) that I found. It is totally inaccurate. This text makes reference to the Class 1 POTUS sGm (half-dollar size) of which images were added to this blog entry (this is the first ever picture of a Class 1 type set).The following information was documented for the first time in my 2014 book and updated with additional information in my 2015 book. Additional information to follow in my future 3rd book. It should be noted that my 2014 book was the first instance in U.S. numismatic history where a half-century old Bureau of the Mint medals was first organized into series,� first release of actual mintage, first release of end of term destruction inventory, first identification of the designer, etc... , and was the first to document and share the discovery� with the U.S. numismatic community.�� In the Class 1 type set images: The bottom medal is Gomez-C1-01b. The left medal is Gomez-C1-03. The right medal is Gomez-C1-02.C1=Class 1 (30.6mm diameter, 2.6875 thickness)-01b,- 03, and -02= reverse die identifierThere are three Class 1 die marriages. A� common obverse die is paired with each of the three different reverse dies.Reverse die -01 is blank resulting in a uniface medal. The thickness of 2.6875 was made in order to remove die clashing on the blank side (as a result all Class 1 medals are this thickness). The blank side was inscribed with custom text by a commercial jeweler (located within the Pentagon). There are currently three known types of� custom text. The "Newport, R.I. 1958" text designates it as a Summer White House issue, hence the letter identifier in -01b . Reverse die 03 depicts President Eisenhower's 11-nation tour route. The reverse design had a guide dimple to allow the commercial jeweler drill a hole and attach a keychain.� Again, the commercial jeweler did the post-manufacture work.� Reverse die 02 depicts the year 1959 of which President Eisenhower visited Europe .� (To be discussed in my future book: A limited number of this medal is accompanied with a presidential card and envelope). This is a sampling of my on-going research. Extensive research findings are in my books. TO BE CONTINUED... �

If you Google the term "special government medal" or "sGm" or "special medals for US government agencies" your search result relating to the Bureau of the Mint or United States Mint will be empty. However, if you search the term "POTUS sGm" you will get a hit to my website (discusses a particular type of "special government medal" of which I have ongoing research). This empty search result� points out that these common terms� are� unused and uncommon term within the US numismatic community. However, if you review each of the� Annual Reports of the Director of the Mint (if you have the time) you will see this term is used often to describe a function of the Bureau of the Mint/United States Mint. What is a "special government medal (sGm)"? The term "special medals for US government agencies" relates to the third official manufacturing function of the Bureau of the Mint/United States Mint.� The three blog images provides an introduction to this third official manufacturing function of the Bureau of the Mint/United States Mint.The final image with the examples of "special government medals" drives the point of this blog entry. There is no numismatic work that identifies nor catalogs all� results from the third official manufacturing function of the Bureau of the Mint (or United States Mint). The final images also provides evidence of the connection between the Bureau of the Mint and multiple United States Government agencies with Frank Gasparro as the common thread as the designer of these three represented "special Government medals".�

Collectors of John F. Kennedy memorabilia should recognize the name Robert L. White. His name is synonymous as the owner/collector of the most significant private collection of artifacts and documents relating to and/or belonging to the late President John F. Kennedy. His collection was greeted with controversy when items were cosigned for auction. Many of the artifacts/documents where national treasures that he either purchased from or was bequeath to him from President Kennedy's longtime personal secretary. Many of those items were returned to the Kennedy family or turned over to the National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2006/summer/camelot.htmlIt was astounding that I came upon a medal being offered for sale without a hint of its pedigree. The documentation that accompanied my Kennedy Appreciation Medal allowed me to make the unbelievable connection to the Robert L. White collection that was auctioned in 2005 after his death.