Personal Medals

"1850" Henry Clay Memorial Medal. By Charles Cushing Wright. Julian PR-7. Bronze. Mint State.

89 mm. A lovely struck example of this type, nearly Choice except for a trivial obverse carbon spot at the letters GH in WRIGHT and a faint reverse pin scratch from the border at 4:30. Speckled olive-copper overtones to dominant autumn-brown patina, the surfaces are satiny, glossy and smooth apart from the aforementioned trivial blemishes. Fully struck, as well, and a superior example of this rare and challenging type. The reverse exhibits an 18-line précis from Clay's election to the Senate in 1806 through his 1850 Compromise that saved the Union for 11 years. Struck in gold for the City of New York then in a limited number of bronze examples, as here, that were sold for the then-astronomical sum of $30 each.

From the Midnight Collection.

Estimate: 800