Indian Peace Medals
1849 Zachary Taylor Indian Peace Medal. Bronze. Third Size. Second Reverse. Julian IP-29, Prucha-47. MS-65 BN (NGC).
50.9 mm. 848.8 grains. Rich mahogany bronze with gentle chestnut mottling over both sides. Somewhat darker chocolate brown blends inward from the rims. A few very minor handling marks are noted, but there are no marks that could be considered individually distracting. The fields are generously prooflike and the medal is aesthetically very attractive. Struck from the original dies intended for the issued medals and used on the silver ones for presentation. The reverse seen here is frequently called the 1846 reverse, as it was called for and cut in that year, but not put into service until the Taylor medals were struck in 1849. All small-size Taylor medals are rare. Silver originals are prohibitively so, and it might be the case that the bronzes are not far behind in this regard. We have sold three examples over the years going back to the Ford sales and, remarkably, two of them are in the present collection. A search of the Heritage archives turned up nothing. Carl Carlson’s research of auction appearances turned up just three, fewer than half of what he found for silver impressions.
Ex Stack’s Bowers Galleries, August 2014, lot 3021.
Estimate: $1000