1871 Ulysses S. Grant Indian Peace Medal. Silver. Julian IP-42, Prucha-53. Choice Extremely Fine.
63.2 mm. 1734.2 grains. Pierced for suspension at 12 o'clock, as usual, with the original loop. Deep steel-gray patina over most of the surface, with some lighter areas on the high points and in the right obverse field. Traces of soft blue and gold are noted in the recesses. Though clearly an awarded and worn medal, this remains sharply detailed and shows only the usual scattered tiny contact marks. A couple of rim nicks seem virtually unavoidable on these medals, but the busy design of the rim on this issue helps to mask those. There are 57 examples in the present writer's census of specimens, 14 of which are in institutional collections. This is the most available of all the American Peace medal issues, but in recent times it has grown in both popularity and price. It is the ideal entry into the series for a new collector of Peace medals, but it also holds appeal for those collecting the Civil War or American medals in general. This design type is very interesting in that, though it was struck as an "Indian Peace medal," references to Native Americans are virtually nonexistent, aside from the single small pipe motif below the presidential portrait on the obverse. The design here is more reflective of a general sentiment of world peace, illustrated plainly by the reverse, which is an understandable sentiment for the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, in the years just after the close of the War. In some ways, this medal has much more to do with the Civil War than it does Native Americans, though the latter might have been the official intended audience.
From our (Stack's) sale of January 1998, lot 84.