1807

1882 Mechanics’ Institute San Francisco Gold Medal with Original Presentation Box. Awarded. 49 mm.

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:2,400.00 USD Estimated At:7,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD
1882 Mechanics’ Institute San Francisco Gold Medal with Original Presentation Box. Awarded. 49 mm.
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1882 Mechanics’ Institute San Francisco Gold Medal with Original Presentation Box. Awarded. 49 mm.
Nearly as Struck, scattered hairlines present.

Obverse: central figure of Columbia offering laurel crowns to Mechanics and Agriculture, SAN FRANCISCO in exergue below. Reverse: INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION arcs at top, laurel wreath with AWARDED TO between ends, D.M. Osborne & Co. / Best / General Display of Agricultural Machinery hand-engraved within on three lines in fancy upper and lower case Spenserian script, 1882 at bottom. Housed in the original Mechanics Institute box – the first of these that we have seen. The delicate fabric of the top is frayed at the edges and is detached from the sides, but otherwise, the box is sound.

Founded in 1854, The San Francisco Mechanics Institute was originally established as a vocational school for unemployed miners. At the time, California was without public libraries, colleges or universities, and the institute was one of the only sources of training in woodworking, mechanical drawing, industrial design, electrical science, applied mathematics, and ironwork in the state. Instrumental in the establishment of the University of California in the late 1860s, the institute also hosted fairs promoting industry, invention, and art. Winning exhibitors, including Levi Strauss, Goodyear Tire, and Ghirardelli Chocolate, were awarded medals such as this for their ingenuity.

David M. Osborne began manufacturing straw cutters and corn shellers in Auburn, New York during the mid-19th century. His first enterprise failed, leading him to take a job as the general superintendent of the Buffalo Agricultural Works, where he met a mechanic and inventor by the name of William Kirby, with whom he went into business in 1857. By the time Osborne & Company had won the present award they were an international concern with offices throughout the United States and Europe.