1837 Martin Van Buren Indian Peace Medal. Silver. Third Size. Julian IP-19. Prucha-44. Very Fine.
50.9 mm. 772.9 grains. Pierced for suspension as usual, with the hole fairly well worn and the rim above starting to thin somewhat. Soft blue and champagne toning over deep steel gray surfaces that are just a bit lighter on the high points. Scattered nicks and marks as expected for an awarded and worn Peace medal. A couple of heavier digs are noted left of the portrait and at the right wrist on the reverse. These marks seem to correspond to a very gentle bend in the flan. Small rim nicks are also noted. Though this has certainly seen some use and there is some resulting softness on the details in the highest areas of relief, traces of reflectivity remain in the fields and the eye appeal is quite satisfying. Struck from the early state of the reverse die with a small die chip outside of the inner rim border just below the 3 o'clock position. This die was used to strike all of the medals of this size bearing dates 1809 through 1845 and would eventually develop a secondary break beneath the one just described. Carl Carlson recorded only five auction records for this size, the smallest number of appearances for the three sizes in silver. John Ford owned three small size Van Burens in silver, compared to two of the medium size and four of the largest size. The Ford appearances correspond to the relative rarities of the sizes that the writer has found in his survey of surviving specimens. Thirteen specimens have been accounted for, one of which is suspected but not confirmed by an image. Four of these are in institutional collections at the ANS, Colonial Williamsburg, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis and Massachusetts Historical Society. This medal has a nice provenance back to the David Dreyfuss Collection sold in 1986, the first major offering of Indian Peace medals since the 1981 Garrett sale seemingly invigorated interest in this series.
From our (Bowers and Merena's) sale of the David W. Dreyfuss Collection, April 1986, lot 5144; our (Stack's) sale of September 2005, lot 208; our sale of the Larry Ness Collection, November 2020 Auction, lot 2056.