Stack's Bowers Galleries

November 2021 Baltimore Auction  –  21 - 24 November 2021

Stack's Bowers Galleries, November 2021 Baltimore Auction

Live Sessions: US Coins and Currency

Part 1: Su, 21.11.2021, from 9:00 PM CET
Part 2: Mo, 22.11.2021, from 6:00 PM CET
Part 4: Tu, 23.11.2021, from 12:00 AM CET
Part 3: Tu, 23.11.2021, from 1:00 AM CET
Part 5: Tu, 23.11.2021, from 6:00 PM CET
Part 6: We, 24.11.2021, from 1:00 AM CET
The auction is closed.

Description

“1801” (circa 1860s?) Thomas Jefferson Indian Peace Medal. Bronze. Third Size. Original Dies. Julian IP-4, Prucha-39. SP-66 (PCGS).

52.1 mm. 1041.1 grains. Lovely deep mahogany bronze surfaces exhibit natural flecks of deep reddish tan mottling throughout. Some areas have slightly deeper patina, mostly closer to the rims. Traces of soft blue and violet are noted in the fields. Glossy, with a mild prooflike texture in the fields and a fine satin finish on the devices. Beautifully struck and virtually pristine as far as any handling evidence goes. Just a couple of trivial patina spots are seen on the obverse when studied closely. An immensely attractive example struck from the original steel dies used to produced the prized silver shells. The dies are in slightly later states here, clearly polished up a bit prior to striking this piece. Several areas of soft spalling or rust are noted on the obverse, mostly in the leftmost field and along the rim. A thin rim break is easy to overlook at 3:00. On the reverse, crumbling between the knuckles of the index and second finger is clearly seen, and there are faint die cracks connecting the rightmost arm to the tomahawk handle above. The die state seems similar to the Ness Collection example, and certainly a bit later than the silver original we sold in August 2013. It is believed that most of the later bronze collector strikes were of the 76 mm version, with the largest and smallest being far rarer. Indeed, our archives going back over a decade include only three examples of this medal. The single example offered in our May 2007 Ford sale is the present piece. As in our Ness sale, we have dated this issue to the 1860s because our survey of Mint records included in Julian indicates that there seems to have been more demand for Jefferson medals at this time than in other decades for which records are provided. However, references therein to "Jefferson Medals" having been struck in any given year do not clearly indicate the issue struck (i.e. Peace medal or Inaugural medal), so uncertainty seems unavoidable. This could be from an earlier period. Michael Hodder proposed "after the middle 1830s" for it in our Ford XVIII sale but provided no supporting evidence within the description.

From the E Pluribus Unum Collection. Earlier from our (Stack's) sale of the H.P. McCullough Collection, November 1967, lot 377 (part); John J. Ford, Jr.; our (Stack's) sale of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, Part XVIII, May 2007, lot 64.

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Bidding

Price realized 2'700 USD
Starting price 1 USD
Estimate 2'000 USD
The auction is closed.
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