Auction Catalogue

8 September 1998

Starting at 12:00 PM

.

Ancient, British and World Coins, Tokens, Historical Medals and Banknotes

The Arts Club  40 Dover St  London  W1S 4NP

Lot

№ 1331

.

8 September 1998

Hammer Price:
£210

Germany, the sinking of the Lusitania, 1915, satirical iron medal by Karl Goetz, dated 5 MAI, 58mm (K. 156; cf. pp 13-18). Extremely fine (£80-100)

Goetz’s medal, inspired by one of the most imfamous incidents of the war, led to the well known the issue by the British of crude copies sold as anti-German propaganda on behalf of the Red Cross. The medals have been discussed on numerous occasions in the numismatic press and Kienast gives a full and interested account. Goetz justification of the piece was that it was in no intended to celebrate the disaster but instead to castigate the Cunard Line for putting innocent civilians at risk for the sake of profit and underwater photography has recently revealed that the Lusitania was indeed carrying arms. In is unknown how many original medals were eventually made but in a letter dated 1916 Goetz claims he sold 180, 75 of which went to the Amsterdam dealer Schulman.