A Beautiful Kodiak De Luxe

[alaskabowhunter]

There is no such thing as a "correct coin" for 1960 Kodiak, Kodiak Deluxe, or Kodiak Special Deluxe. Some got copper coins, some got aluminum. Mostly likely they were using up the copper coins and installing the aluminum at the same time. There is no rhyme or reason to the coins as they overlap. I have over 20 versions of these 1960 Kodiaks, the serial numbers don't jive like the 1959 Kodiaks and the coins are intermixed.

[TonyW]

Wade Phillip's words to the wise:
"First rule in determining the actual date that any Bear Bow was made is look at the profile of the bow, that is the form it was built on. 59s and 60s have noticeably different profiles. The riser wood is the second feature that I use to differentiate years. Glass color would be third but in the case of the 59 & 60 it is the same. Simply put you can not change these three features of a bow after it is built.

Riser and tip overlays can be replaced by anyone skilled in building bows.

There have been lots of repairs made by many different bowmen over the years.

Just trying to caution you that tip overlay colors are a quick, easy way to tell a 59 from a 60, but it is not fool proof. And the real problem in using tip overlays is now some un-knowledgeable people will take that out of context and declare any Kodiak with black and white overlays as a 1959.

That is pretty much what happened in the case of all the "coin daters". They have taken Al Reader's words out of context and declared all 59s have copper coins and all 60s have aluminum coins.

Coins can be replaced easier than overlays, but both can changed by someone who knows what they are doing."

[ArrowPlane]

Beautiful bow!

Do you think the medallion is original? They switched to aluminum for the 60's, unless they were still using up the copper ones early in the year. I ask because I just got a 1960 KS (not deluxe) that also has a copper medallion. Looks like it might have been a replacement though since there was a lot of finish over the top and on that area of the riser.

[warpedarrow]

Of the nine 1959 and 1960 kodiaks, kodiak specials, and the deluxes on my rack all but one have copper medallions.  The odd ball being a kodiak deluxe that never was prepped for a medallion.
I am thinking that the silver medallions were not used much at all that year.  It would be interesting to see what serial numbers had the silver coins.