Osborne Mint Strikes Commemoratives
Osborne Mint in Cincinnati struck legal tender Ascension Islands coins during a special ceremony attended by hobby leaders and dignitaries.
Though Cincinnati may be miles away from the Ascension Islands, an event on July 23 united the two places.
On that day, the Osborne Mint in Cincinnati hosted about a dozen dignitaries and leaders in the hobby for a striking ceremony of legal tender Ascension Islands coins issued to celebrate a coin show.
Witnesses to the event included coin designer Joel Iskowitz, then outgoing American Numismatic Association President Thomas Uram, and Chang Bullock of Minted Assets, the company behind the coins, which celebrate the ANA’s World’s Fair of Money of Aug. 19 to 23, in Oklahoma City.
Three different coins have been issued in the program of official issues related to the show: a Reverse Proof base metal $1, a Proof .999 fine silver $5, and a Proof .999 fine gold $100.
Western themes feature prominently in the design created by Iskowitz. End of the Trail, a sculpture of a weary Native American astride a horse, appears on the reverse of the coins marking the ANA show.
A 1915 version of the statue is on display at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. The model used for the statue was Chief John Big Tree, also one of three models used on the famed Buffalo nickel, which Fraser designed.
On the coin, a lone bald eagle flies over the statue, while a medallic form of Fraser is displayed in the lower right.
Steve Bieda, a hobbyist from Michigan who has created a commemorative coin design (and who was a judge for the Michigan State quarter design), was among the attendees. Bullock credits Bieda with part of the design for the 2025 coins.
“What’s cool about this one is, after Chicago’s last year, I was really struggling with what the heck to put on [the coins for] Oklahoma City,” Bullock said. “I know Oklahoma City for good steaks – that’s about what I know about Oklahoma City.”
It was Bieda who approached Minted Assets’ booth during the 2024 ANA World’s Fair of Money and suggested the Fraser statue at the museum as an appropriate design motif.
“Oh, I know that statue, but I had no idea that it was in Oklahoma City,” Bullock said. “… and Steve was the one that planted that seed, which culminated to what you see on the design.”
Iskowitz spoke at the event, noting the “harmonic convergence” that was necessary to complete the project to develop the coins. “This particular coin has, if you look at it, so many different nuances and aspects to it, and they’re all interconnected,” he said. “And they’re all very meaningful and emotive.”
Iskowitz credited Patrick Hipple of the Osborne Mint, as well as Bullock and the others, for the resulting coins.
“I get the credit as the designer, but … you probably know this, when you work in collaboration, it’s really a team deal. Most of these ideas came from Tom [Uram] and Chang [Bullock].
“James Earle Fraser was a great patriot but a great friend to the Native Americans, and wanted to show compassion and [their] heroism under great duress – a complicated story,” said Iskowitz. “It was misinterpreted then and … is misinterpreted today.”
Part of the design replicates the reverse design of the 2008 Oklahoma State quarter dollar, which was created by the late Susan Gamble, with whom he competed to create coin and medal designs through the U.S. Mint’s Artistic Infusion Program.
To show you what kind of collegial respect, and what kind of person she was, Iskowitz said, Gamble sent photos of her horses and the proper rigging for him to use as reference when he was competing to design the 2016 Theodore Roosevelt National Park quarter from the America the Beautiful coin series.
“She was a horse person… she rode horses daily,” he said. “I’m a guy who was born in the Bronx. What do I know about Oklahoma?”
He won the design contest.
For the 2025 World’s Fair of Money coins, Iskowitz had a chance to return the favor.
He reached out to Gamble’s widow, her husband Michael, and received permission to include her design, adding her signature to credit her fully.
Other attendees at the event included Jeff and Mary Lynn Garrett, hobby stalwarts having served at various levels of the ANA Board; David Heinrich, current ANA Governor; Ronnie Abazzio, Commonwealth Mint’s Sales Director; Jake Utz of Amos Media; Erin Harrison, Director of Operations at Minted Assets, and the author.
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Jeff Starck is the Market Analyst for Numismaster.com and is a lifelong collector and writer. His appreciation for and interest in world coins and writing allows him to share the hobby with others.