John Adams Bolen Medals

Undated (ca. 1862) United States Arsenal Medal Muling. With Sun / Without Sun. By John Adams Bolen. Musante JAB M/E-1. Silver. MS-65 (NGC).

28 mm. A richly original example, and the first silver impression from these dies that we can ever recall handling. Satiny Gem-quality surfaces are sharply defined over all design elements with subtle, yet appreciable semi-reflectivity in the fields. Nicely toned, glints of steel-blue, antique gold and pale rose enhance dominant pewter gray. These mulings are likely the product of Dr. Edwards, who acquired the dies from Bolen. The date given is the date the dies are known to have been engraved, but not necessarily the time of striking. However, some or all were likely made close to the time of the cutting of the dies. In his 2002 reference The Medallic Work of John Adams Bolen, however, Musante does not note any appearances prior to Frossard's 104th sale, in January 1891, which included only copper, brass and tin examples. Musante records only a single auction appearance for a silver impression (the present example?), lot 109 in the PCAC sale of December 1995, in which it is noted, "The mintage figure is unknown, but no more than a few were probably struck. We can find no modern auction record for a silver example." Rare.

Estimate: 2000