Indian Peace Medals
1862 Abraham Lincoln Indian Peace Medal. Silver. Second Size. Julian IP-39, Prucha-51. Very Fine.
62.6 mm. 1410.3 grains. Pierced for suspension as typical, with a plain silver loop that is likely the original or at least in the identical style to that originally supplied. Medium gray silver with gentle mottling of golden brown and steel blue on the obverse. Similar tones are seen on the reverse but in a more evenly blended arrangement. Gentle wear is immediately apparent, and one must look closer to find the expected scattered marks of an issued medal. A few small scratches are also seen, with a more serious patch of them in the right obverse field. Considerable wear in the suspension hole illustrates that this medal was worn on someone’s person for an extended period, but it didn’t obtain the more serious damage seen on some examples. The eye appeal is really very nice. Unlike the case of the large Lincoln medals, the original reverse die cut for the second size Buchanan medals did not break and was used for all issued medals of this administration. Joseph Willson’s signature may be seen in the exergue of the central medallion. Though basically the same design as on the large medals, the details of the central medallion are arranged differently. While the foreground figure of the Native American plowing is virtually identical, the arrangements in the distance differ. The most notable difference is in the central placement of a church steeple at the center on this size, while large medals have a less obvious church at the far right. The baseball players are also in different positions. Close inspection will reveal other differences as well. Quite a bit of detail was put into these designs by Willson. It is believed that 100 medals were struck in silver of each size for the Lincoln issue, which would suggest that the survival rate should be fairly close. In fact, the writer has identified 22 different specimens for this size, which is eight fewer than for the larger medals. However, all are pierced for issue, and consistently so. Additionally, we have weights for 19 of the 22, and they all seem to have been struck on planchets of the same weight standard. This suggests that, in fact, some large Lincoln medals were probably made for collectors while those of this size were all issued. Taking this into consideration, the rates of survival of the issued medals is very close to identical. Six of the specimens we are aware of are in institutional collections.
Ex Virgil M. Brand; Michael Brand Zeddies, February 1960; John J. Ford, Jr.; Stack’s sale of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, Part XVI, October 2006, lot 166.
Estimate: $12000