Undated (ca. 1893) Cyrus Medal by J.A. Bolen. Musante JAB-40. Brass. Marked “B” on edge. MS-65 (PCGS).

35.2 mm. 228.6 grains. Lovely olive gold brass with soft mottled overtones of rose, blue, orange and violet on both sides. Slight prooflike character in the smooth fields and very few handling marks. Slight peripheral weakness in the strike is evident, but all major details are quite clear. According to Musante, this was produced for E.J. Piper of Springfield, who was a member of a local Scottish Rite of Masonry lodge, and that the Hebrew characters translate to "Cyrus," a king of the Bible whose name was associated with the Lodge. Musante discusses in more detail the full historic background of Cyrus. The dies for this medal were cut more than a decade after Edwin Johnson published his list of Bolen's works in 1882, so the only good contemporary source is Bolen's 1905 listing, where he identifies it simply as the "Masonic Medal. Size 22." and gives descriptions as follows: "Obv. Persian characters surrounded by stars, etc. in circle" and "Rev. Urn surrounded by sunrays, crown above, oak wreath at right, laurel wreath at left." He commented that the dies were cut in May 1893, and gives mintages as 314 in copper, 7 in brass, and 24 in aluminum. Musante suggests that this medal and the JAB-41 were probably struck and distributed as a fund-raising effort to rebuild the Springfield lodge which had burned in 1891. According to Musante, the dies were given to Piper, and he still had them as of 1905. The story and mintage, in concert, beg the question, where are they all? This type was missing from both the 2011 Bowers collection offering and the 2014 Musante Collection sale. In fact, we have none in any metal in our online archives, which is remarkable considering the fairly large mintage given in copper. Thanks to Musante's research we do know of two other examples, both at the ANS. Thankfully, they are copper and aluminum impressions, both with Bolen's personal edge mark, so we know where those two from his personal reference collection are. This piece completes the set, as Bolen's personal example in brass. Assuming Bolen's reported mintages are correct, and the large quantity produced still survives somewhere, it is worth mentioning that brass is the rarest composition by far. Yet another prize for any serious Bolen collector.

From the E Pluribus Unum Collection. Earlier from the personal reference collection of John Adams Bolen; unknown intermediaries; Max Schwartz, date unrecorded, but probably in the 1950s.