Announcing the Libertas Americana Medal

THE LONDON CHRONICLE. London, Thursday March 13 to Saturday March 15, 1783. Vol. LIII, No. 4109. 4to tabloid, 8 pages numbered 249–256. Tax stamp on page 4. Removed from previous binding. Very good or better. An especially notable numismatic announcement: “If ever an event deserved a lasting monument, it is doubtless that of the American war, and the acknowledgment of their Independence, which followed it. In consequence of this, Dr. Franklin has struck a medal relative to these events. It represents Hercules in his cradle, strangling two serpents; a Leopard, amazed at his strength, is ready to fall upon him; he is repulsed by France, who, under the figure of Minerva, turns her shield, on which are three Fleurs de Lis, towards him. At the bottom are the years 1777 and 1781, epochs of the capitulations of the armies of Burgoyne and Cornwallis, represented by the two serpents. On the other side is Liberty, emblematically pourtryed [sic] by a fine woman; and in the Exergue, Libertas Americana.” The wording of this announcement is very similar to that found in the March 1783 issue of The Gentleman’s Magazine, page 269.