Indian Peace Medals
Circa 1890 George Washington Private Indian Peace medal. Aluminum. Plain Edge. No Periods Reverse. Prucha-64, Musante GW-1148, Baker-173P, var. Mint State.
62.6 mm. 591.1 grains. Bright aluminum surfaces with good reflectivity in the fields and satiny, lustrous devices. Some light hairlining is visible in the soft metal, as are a couple of thin scratches in the left obverse field. A sharp and quite attractive example of this medal in a composition that the maker, Joseph A. Lamere, offered to collector Walter C. Wyman for $2, in 1901, for quantities of 50 or more! This is nicely outlined in Bauman Belden’s work, Indian Peace Medals Issued in the United States, where he reprints the entirety of a letter from Lamere to Wyman on page 45. Wyman being a knowledgeable collector did not accept the offer, and the rarity of this medal in aluminum suggests that no one else did, either! This has a nice provenance to the impressive collection of Washington medals assembled by Lucien LaRiviere, which we sold in November 1999. LaRiviere was a serious collector of these medals and other series, but was driven first and foremost by quality in all of his numismatic pursuits.
Ex Johnson and Jensen, May 1980, lot 315; Lucien LaRiviere, Bowers and Merena, November 1999, lot 3114; Anthony Terranova; Charles A. Wharton Collection, Stack’s Bowers Galleries, August 2013, lot 1071.
Estimate: $1000