1,200 original dies and hubs cut by engraver Karl Xaver Goetz will be offered without reserve beginning April 17-22 at Heritage Auctions' World & Ancient Coin Signature® Auction during the Chicago International Coin Fair (CICF). Karl Xaver Goetz is Germany's most prolific medal artists of the 20st century.
Goetz's most famous work is the 1915 Lusitania medallion commemorating the sinking of the passenger ship RMS Lusitania by German submarines on 7 May 1915. Originally, the Medallion was a private initiative by Goetz, created only in 1916 and initially consisted of only a few hundred pieces. As a specimen was discovered by the British Foreign Office and in the New York Times published picture caused a sensation, the British government decided to use the medal for counter-propaganda.
The medallion obverse show a passenger lined up at a Cunard ticket booth with a skeleton as a ticket clerk.
The reverse displays a half submerged ship with the words above "Keine Bann Ware"-without warning. Underneath the ship are the words "The large steamer Lusitania , sank by a German submarine, May 5, 1915".
As a member of the Munich Artists Society, The Numismatic Society, and The Austrian Association for Numismatics in Vienna, Goetz medal artistry was known worldwide. Many of his works are still on display at the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin, among others. The first selection of dies offered by Heritage will features those crafted for both government and commissioned works, including the die used by Goetz to famously promote anti-black sentiment in the 1920s. His "The Watch on the Rhine" aka "The Black Shame" medal is infamous for using racial overtones to protest black colonial French troops.
"The dies and hubs will be offered in order as they appear in Gunter W. Kienast's opus 'The Medals of Karl Goetz,'" said Cristiano Bierrenbach, Executive Vice President of International Numismatics for Heritage. "Goetz' remarkable dies are a testament to his talent as well as the important, yet tumultuous, events during which he cultivated his fans and critics."
The entire collection will be offered in three parts: The first, April, 17-22, 2013 during Heritage's World and Ancient Coins Signature Auction at CICF in Chicago. Future selections will be offered again in September 2013 with the final selection offered in April 2014.
