Marshall Islands KM# 37 - 5 Dollars Space Shuttle Columbia 1991 [Risolto]

There are two mint mark varieties: big “M” and small “M”.
Here are the pics for big “M”:


And here are the pics for small “M”:


I can't edit coin page, says The list of years is complete. Please add

I checked the pic on Numista page and it does not have a mint mark at all, so there must be three varieties…

There are 11 coin pictures on the page. Ten of them do not have an M mint mark.

I see this coin on a regular basis and never saw a difference (especially since I didn't know there was a difference). But now I took a closer look and although most of them are without the M, I've found a few more with that M.

But it's not only the M. There are a lot of differences:

Orange: Lettering close to rim or not

Green: Ornaments on front and back side of the wings or not

Blue: Different font: all the lower lines of the letters strait or wavy

Purple: Wide or narrow rim

Red: Big or small stars (only a few indicated but they all are)

Black: Contour of the earth forms a sharp line and goes till the rim or not

The M stands for Medallic Art Company

Source: Gerhard Schön, Welt Münzkatalog, 20. Jahrhundert, 1901 - 2000, 4 Auflage (2016), page 17 and 1281

Essor Prof

The M stands for Medallic Art Company

Source: Gerhard Schön, Welt Münzkatalog, 20. Jahrhundert, 1901 - 2000, 4 Auflage (2016), page 17 and 1281

Not saying this is incorrect. But American Numismatic Society has an Archive of the Medallic Art Company issues. This one is not among the list they have compiled nor any of the other Marshall Island issues.. Would like to also point out that I am not aware of any mintmark that has been used by Medallic Art Company.

Other than the Marshall Islands, M has not been used for them before.

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/mint.php?id=1880

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/mint.php?id=1882

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/mint.php?id=1879

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/mint.php?id=1881

Here is a link to the 1980-1984 archive

https://numismatics.org/wp-content/uploads/MACO-Archive-Image-Catalog-1980-1984.pdf

I can only say both Schön and Krause claim some of the Marshall Islands coins are struck by the Medallic Art Company and Schön specifically mentions New York, Danbury and Sioux Falls so there is no doubt we're talking about the same company. Schön also mentions specifically between brackets (Auftragsprägungen für die Marshall-Inseln)

Sent a request to the referee.

A coin dated 1991 would hardly be in an archive dated 1980 to 1984…

https://numismatics.org/maco-specimen-archive/

https://numismatics.org/wp-content/uploads/MACO-Archive-Image-Catalog-1990-1999.pdf

I did see that I got the dates wrong.  I looked at all 33 pages of the archive.  It is for medals.  The Space shuttle Columbia is a coin.  There were no coins in the archive images…

Is it possible that the M does not refer to the Medallic Art Company?

Oklahoman

 

Is it possible that the M does not refer to the Medallic Art Company?

Of course that's possible but both Krause and Schön say the M stands for Medallic Art Company.

For me, I find it interesting that 2 of the mints mentioned in both Krause and Schön are not linked to any other coins in any other country other than Marshall Islands. Now, that is going based on Numista. So I would like to see other cases of Medallic Art Company and Roger Willams Mint minting coins and I would like to see more examples of them using the M and R as a mint mark. I would like to also point out the many examples of errors that Krause has mentioned just in the forums on Numista.

Medallic Art Company

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/mint.php?id=1880

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/mint.php?id=1881

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/mint.php?id=1879

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/mint.php?id=1882

Roger Williams Mint

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/mint.php?id=1355

I noticed that there were several medallic art companys.  I know of the one in Danbury, but it seemed like there was one in Dayton or somewhere in the midwest.  I am certainly going to see what else can be found.  I did send an email requesting some additional informationk, and will report back here when I get a response.