Owner Comments:
MEDAL APPEARANCE/CONDITION:
TOP POP: Bronze Variety - Brilliant Gem+/High-Relief
Pedigree: “National Park Centennial”
(Slabbed in Double-Thick Holder)
*An utterly beautiful high-relief design depicting Mesa Verde National Park and the Native Americans who built/lived there. The antiqued bronze has exceptional appeal, as it’s clearly apparent the dies were sculpted both beautifully and with quality. The issue is preserved in a state of brilliant gem+ — Despite being well maintained, high-relief issues tend to be challenging to obtain in grades higher than MS-66. — Matches is silver counterpart of the same design which is also included in this collection.*
MEDAL BACKGROUND:
Issued by the Medallic Art Company, N.Y., circa 1972 to recognize Mesa Verde National Park located in Montezuma County, Colorado.
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The National Parks Centennial Series was issued circa 1972 by the Medallic Art Company, N.Y., as a 36-piece medal set in both .999 fine silver and bronze. The series includes the following issues: Keystone; Yosemite; Glacier; Everglades; Grand Teton; Acadia; Great Smoky Mountains; Grand Canyon; Mount Rainier; Rocky Mountain; Hawaii Volcanoes; Olympic; Shenandoah; Hot Springs; Mammoth Cave; Platt; Petrified Forest; Kings Canyon; Wind Cave; Sequoia; Zion; Carlsbad Caverns; Mesa Verde; Crater Lake; Voyageurs; Lassen Volcanic; Bryce Canyon; North Cascades; Haleakala; Virgin Islands; Redwood; Big Bend; Mount McKinley; Canyonlands; Guadalupe Mountains; Isle Royale. The medals were originally issued in a green cardboard album and sleeve. They were produced under a contract with a company called Roche Jaune (French for "stone" and "yellow" -- a reference to the first national park, Yellowstone). Each cardboard album holds 18 medals in labeled holes.
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Of the 36 parks officially recognized in the National Parks Centennial Series, two are from Colorado; Mesa Verde and Rocky Mountain National Park. Examples of both the bronze and silver varieties from each respective park reside in this collection. Their type, variety, and grade are as follows:
- 1972 Mesa Verde National Park (Bronze): NGC MS-66 (TOP POP)
- 1972 Mesa Verde National Park (Silver): NGC MS-65 (1 Finer)
- 1972 Rocky Mountain National Park (Bronze): NGC MS-65 (TOP POP)
- 1972 Rocky Mountain National Park (Silver): NGC MS-66 (TOP POP)
*NGC Census as of 09/2022
DESIGNER: Frank Hagel
LETTERING: Joseph Di Lorenzo
MARKETED: Roche Jaune
RARITY: Limited 15,000 Sets (Only ~3,000 Sets Sold)
(*TOP POP* NGC Pop = 1; NONE Finer - NGC Total Pop = 1) [09/2022]
**Only example graded by NGC**
MEDAL DESCRIPTION:
(Medallic Art Company, N.Y., Bronze, 38mm, High-Relief, Round, Plain Edge)
OBVERSE: 1872 • National Parks Centennial • 1972 / (Depiction of a Paleo-Indian and Pottery)
REVERSE: Mesa Verde National Park / (Depiction of the Rock Shelters at the Mesa)
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
(1972 National Park Centennial Series):
“A CONTRACT for medals to commemorate the centennial of our national parks, which will be celebrated next year, has been signed with Roche Jaune, Inc., of Kalispell, Mont., it was announced by George B. Hartzog Jr., Director of the National Park Service.
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COINS:
According to Laurence W. Lane Jr. of Menlo Park, Calif., chairman of the Centennial Commission, the pact was negotiated with the National Park Foundation, which has been requested by the Commission to handle this phase of the Centennial activities. The celebrations are to begin on March 1, Yellowstone's 100th anniversary.
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The initial, or keystone, issue will be reserved for the National Park Service. This specimen, 2½ inches in diameter, will be for presentation purposes and Yellowstone will provide the motif for its basic design.
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Smaller medals for Yellowstone and our 35 other national parks will also be made available to the public. The entire series, which will be struck in both pure silver and bronze (in high relief) will be produced by the Medallic Art Company of New York. The original plans also authorize Roche Jaune to issue four other specimens based on the history and developmentor Yellowstone National Park, the first of its kind in the world.
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The Montana Company paid $50,000 on signing the contract and will pay the National Park Foundation a royalty of 10 per cent of the “approved sales prices to the public.”
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The designs to be used on the commemoratives and the prices to be charged must be approved by the Foundation, Mr. Hartzog said. The National Parks Centennial Commission was authorized by Congress to conduct the 1972 program. Congress also approved $250,000 of appropriated funds for the Centennial activities. This money Is to be made available after a minimum of $300,000 has been raised from private sources, Mr. Hartzog said.
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With the “recent” interest of Americans in ecology, and the great concern expressed over the destruction of the beauty of our nation's natural resources, the commemorative Medals are expected to play a major role in the Centennial fund campaign.“ — Credited Source: The New York Times; September 12, 1971, Section D, Page 37
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(Mesa Verde National Park; Colorado):
“Mesa Verde National Park is an American national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado. The park protects some of the best-preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the United States.
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Established by Congress and President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, the park occupies 52,485 acres (21,240 ha) near the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. With more than 5,000 sites, including 600 cliff dwellings, it is the largest archaeological preserve in the United States. Mesa Verde (Spanish for "green table", or more specifically "green table mountain") is best known for structures such as Cliff Palace, thought to be the largest cliff dwelling in North America.
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Starting c. 7500 BC Mesa Verde was seasonally inhabited by a group of nomadic Paleo-Indians known as the Foothills Mountain Complex. The variety of projectile points found in the region indicates they were influenced by surrounding areas, including the Great Basin, the San Juan Basin, and the Rio Grande Valley. Later, Archaic people established semi-permanent rock shelters in and around the mesa. By 1000 BC, the Basketmaker culture emerged from the local Archaic population, and by 750 AD the Ancestral Puebloans had developed from the Basketmaker culture.” — Credited Source: "Mesa Verde National Park | Mesa Verde Country Colorado". mesaverdecountry.com. Mesa Verde Country Visitor Information Bureau.