"100th Anniversary of Clifford Hewlett's Visit to China" Medal
On the morning of September 30th, the first strike ceremony of the “100th Anniversary of Clifford Hewlett’s Visit to China Medal” was held at Shanghai New Century Co., Ltd. in Shanghai.
This interesting medal commemorating the 100th anniversary of Clifford Hewlett’s visit to China was designed by COTY winning designer Yu Min who worked at the Shanghai Mint from 1980 to 2020. The Shanghai Mint was previously the Central Mint at Shanghai.
Clifford Hewlett (1869-1942) of Philadelphia was born in Halston, Pennsylvania. He was the chief mechanical engineer for the US Mint and was instrumental in projects involving the building and equipping of the mints of Philadelphia, Denver, Manila, and Shanghai. Hewlett came to Shanghai, China, from the Manila Mint in the Winter of 1920 to serve as a technical advisor and set up the Shanghai Mint, which later became China's Central Mint. Hewlett helped to formulate technical specifications in which capital equipment needed to operate a state of art mint was installed. Under Hewlett's advice, China imported many modern coinage machines from 1920 to 1922.
In 1926, due to the financial difficulties of the central government and the war between the Chili and Fengtian factions, there were not enough funds to finish the construction of the mint. Hewlett returned to the USA in 1926 but later returned in 1928 to complete the construction of the now named Central Mint in 1930. The Central Mint's proposed minting capacity was 5,000,000 silver dollars daily, which rivaled the Philadelphia Mint, the largest mint in the world at that time. Hewlett returned to the USA for good early in 1933 to retire to San Diego, but the Chinese government, due to design and production issues at the mint, asked him to return later in 1933, but he declined due to health reasons.
Yu Min (the designer of the medal and the winner of COTY Lifetime Achievement Award), Yi Shizhong (the founder of Shanghai New Century Mint Co., Ltd.), Michael Chou (the president of Champion Auction), Mateo Zhao (NGC director of business development), Michael Corley (NGC finalizer) and Gu Jun (the former Secretary of the Shanghai Mint) presented the ceremony.
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The meeting before the ceremony |
Designer Yu Min operated the press machine to |
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From left: Michael Corley, Yi Shizhong, and Yu Min |
Yi Shizhong and Michael Corley |
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Michael Chou operates the press machine |
Yi Shizhong and Michael Chou |
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The medal on the press machine |
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From left: Michael Corley, Michael Chou, and Yi Shizhong |
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A group photo after the first strike ceremony |