Eugene Daub Wins 2024 American Medal of the Year Award

The American Medallic Sculptors Association has named Eugene Daub the 2024 American Medal of the Year medal winner, for medals created in 2023

The American Medallic Sculptors Association has named Eugene Daub the 2024 American Medal of the Year medal winner, for medals created in 2023.

Daub was recognized for his award medal commissioned by the American Numismatic Society, specifically for the Huntington Award. The ANS Huntington Award is a medal conferred annually in honor of the late Archer M. Huntington, ANS benefactor and president from 1905 to 1910. When stocks of the previous medal ran low, the society commissioned the newly designed medal.

“This award has raised my spirits,” Daub noted. “It’s interesting that the award is for an award. In this case, honoring people who have done extraordinary work. This dovetails with much of the work I do, creating medals to honor extraordinary people. There is nothing in the world I would rather be doing than creating artwork for that purpose.

“I am grateful to Peter Van Alfen and the ANS committee for giving me the opportunity to create this medal. It was a tough act to follow, replacing the Fuchs medal that was such a beautiful piece of medallic art.

“Originally, I thought I would be doing a portrait of Huntington, but the committee wanted more of a symbolic piece. This forced me to dig deeper into an approach that symbolized scholarship — the book and the medal, my two favorite things — and render their sculptural essence. Because of its simplicity, I feel it complements whatever medallic images that it is paired with, as in the recent photo composition by Emma Pratte of the ANS Award to Dr. Pliego.”

The AMSA award medals were struck in silver at Medalcraft of Green Bay, Wis., and are 69 millimeters in diameter.

This year, two medals tied for second place AMSA honors. One Man’s Terrorist is the Next Man’s Freedom Fighter, created by long-time AMSA member Michael Meszaros, and Oak Leaves, by new member Tracy Mahaffey, received the honors.

These two medals truly demonstrate the breadth of subjects that medals can capture, from provocative political statements to intimate views of nature. Meszaros has twice won the AMY in the past, while this is Mahaffey’s first entry.

Meszaros’ medal is in bronze and 99 millimeters in diameter. The artist says, “Both sides are the same, except for the inscriptions and the symbols on the shoulders of both shooter and victims. The effect on the victims is the same. Your view as to which is villain, and which is hero depends on which side you support.”

Mahaffey is a professional stone carver from Rhode Island who specializes in headstones and memorials. Oak Leaves is her first bronze medal, uniface, and 4.5 inches in diameter. The artist says, “I love focusing on the mundane; these are the things that bring me relief from all the stress of the day — telephone poles, clothes pins, pine cones, these are all grounding for me.”

All AMY entries, by 24 artists, will be pictured in the next full-color issue of AMSA’s Members Exchange.

Art medal collectors and designers are invited to learn about and join the American Medallic Sculpture Association at www.amsamedals.org. Previous year’s winners may be viewed at https://amsamedals.org/eventsamerican_medal_of_the_year_award/.