1872 Franklin Fire Company No. 12 Commemorative Membership Medal. Musante GW-816, Baker S-531, Julian UN-25. Silver. Inscribed to Edward B. Turner. VF-30 (PCGS).

45.1 mm. 592.9 grains. Mostly deep gray silver with some subtle slate mottling on both sides. A bit more wear than on the other two we handled over the last few years and a gentle rim bump suggests that Edward Turner carried his medallion with pride for some time. One very tiny edge file at 12 o'clock probably points to a long lost suspension mount. As we wrote in our last offering of an example: "The Franklin Fire Company #12 was established in Philadelphia on Benjamin Franklin's birthday in 1792, hence the name. It was credited with saving the Friend's Meeting House in March 1793, and celebrated for unhesitatingly responding to the Great Fire of New York City in December 1835, despite the long distance between the two cities. Though the Company was too late to be of service, it was recognized publicly for its efforts to aid New York. The Company bought its first engine in 1862. A paid fire company started in Philadelphia in 1871, rendering the old-time volunteer companies less desirable, and the Franklin Fire Company was disbanded in 1872. According to Robert Julian, there were 29 of these medals struck in silver at the Philadelphia Mint. Unfortunately, the dies were unsigned and we do not know who engraved them. Presumably each medal was inscribed to a senior member of the Company at the time it was disbanded." The medal is extremely rare. We are aware of five named specimens, but are only aware of three, including this one, that have appeared for sale in the better part of a century. One appeared in the February 1926 Thomas Elder sale of the William F. Havemeyer Collection, NASCA's July 1981 sale, and our own August 2019 sale. It was named to George W. Palmer, and is plated in the Rulau-Fuld revision of Medallic Portraits of Washington, on page 271. Another is the Historical Society of Pennsylvania specimen sold by us in November 2019. That piece was ex George Parsons and W.W.C. Wilson, named to Jacob Albright. This is the third, from New Netherland's sale of January 1951, and plated in the 1965 revision Medallic Portraits of Washington n. Two more (bearing different names) are recorded in a private collection inventory that has long since been dispersed, but we do not know where those medals went. We are aware of two auction listings of this medal that did not include mention of an engraved name. One was in Hesslein's sale of December 1931, and the other in the 1926 W.W.C. Wilson sale. It is unclear whether these are different specimens or appearances of those we have listed. In any case, this is the third of three confirmed and with this offering, all three have been in our auctions since 2019. It had been decades since any of them appeared when we sold the first in August 2019. Clearly, this is going to be a very difficult U.S. Mint medal to acquire once this example finds its next home.

From the E Pluribus Unum Collection. Earlier from New Netherland's sale of January 1951, lot 163.

Estimate: $ 2000