Collecting history’s record

• By MARK H. HUNTER
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Jun 28, 2008 - Page: 1E - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The Rev. Russell Clunan was browsing at a coin show in Lafayette in 1989 when he spotted a silver-colored medal he’d never seen before.

He’d been collecting rare coins since he was a student at Istrouma High School in the early 1960s, and already owned a collection of pennies and “half-dimes,” commonly called nickels, and early Polish coins.

He had some fourth century “hammered English” coins and even had a 415 B.C. Greek tetra-drachma, but this one medal, about the size of a silver dollar, sparked his interest.

“I saw this medal of John Wesley,” Clunan, 62, said. “I didn’t know the Methodists even did medals.”

The head side is a bust of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, and the tail side, called the reverse side by collectors, was lettering detailing the 93rd Wesleyan Methodist Conference. Dated 1839, and described in “very fine” condition, the white-metal medal had a $100 price, which Clunan promptly paid.

Since then, Clunan, assistant pastor at St. John’s United Methodist Church on Highland Road, has collected 130 Methodist medals. The collection fits in a shoe box but it may be, he said, one of the largest in the world.

While Methodist medals may seem like just another quaint collectible, like those seen on TV programs such as PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow,” they are more than old pieces of metal.

“They are links to our history,” Clunan said. “They help bring history to life.”

“I love history. When people see something like this and can touch it — you can hold history in your hand. This is just one little piece of who we are as Methodists.”

There are only about 100 Methodist medals collectors, because it is a very specific collectibles category, he said. Only one person has a larger collection that he knows of, Clunan said, and that collector lives in England.

The Museum of Methodism, in the Wesley Chapel in London, has an extensive collection of ceramics and art work but medals are not even mentioned on its Web page or sold at its online store. Drew University in Trenton, N.J., has “maybe 25 to 27 medals,” he said, and other Methodist universities and colleges may have a few.

Most of the medals are the size of silver dollars, but some are 3 or 4 inches in diameter. Most are made of white-metal or brass and a few are silver. They were usually minted to be sold to raise money for particular projects or events, or presented as awards.

“Methodists couldn’t afford gold,” Clunan said, although a few very rare, larger medals are gilded with gold.