A collective effort: Designing the 2025 N.O.W. Convention Medal

Hello N.O.W. readers, I am Jack Kleman. I am 15, part of the Wisconsin Valley Coin Club going on two years, and a Morgan Dollar collector. This last summer, my family was tasked by the club to design the obverse of the medal for the N.O.W. convention held at our club’s show in April and to honor our club with it.

We began by taking suggestions from our fellow members about what should be on the design so it could end up being an item everyone liked. Using the design software Canva, we created multiple iterations of the final product, with each one being slightly different, though all managed to represent the club in different ways. The process took a few months of tinkering to make each iteration the most appealing, and it was a challenge to try to fit multiple items on a small token face.

Once we had our three iterations completed, we took them to our members and had a vote to pick the most popular design out of the three. The one picked received nearly all the votes. Then, we sent it to Joe Paonessa, and he crafted 40 fine silver pieces and 100 brass. They are still available while supplies last from N.O.W., and when seeing the final result, it was cool to see the pieces of our past preserved for all time. Being able to help was wonderful, and I hope to again.

Each side of the piece in its silver form. Supplied photo.

Have an interesting numismatic topic you’d like to share with your fellow NOW members?

Send your article to evan.pretzer@protonmail.com today!!!

For more NOW Articles Written By Members, join N.O.W. today!