1826 Erie Canal Completion Medal. HK-1000. Rarity-6. Silver. Specimen-62 (PCGS).
45 mm. A truly exceptional silver impression of this perennially popular type. Both sides are richly toned in deep silver-olive and charcoal-gray with iridescent overtones to the obverse. The fields are satiny smooth and brightly reflective in the protected areas. A few wispy handling marks are scattered about, none of which are worthy of undue concern. Visually appealing, and sure to attract spirited bidding from advanced specialists. When completed on October 26, 1825, the Erie Canal was an engineering marvel nearly four decades in the making, having first been proposed in the 1780s. The canal connected Buffalo and the Great Lakes in the west to Albany and the Hudson River in the east, and by extension to New York City and the Atlantic Ocean via the Hudson River. Its completion ushered in an era of economic, cultural and political prosperity in New York and specifically New York City, whose increasing importance as a port city outpaced competing ports along the eastern seaboard. The Canal brought the agricultural products of the western interior to markets in the East, and transported finished goods from the port of New York City to the interior, all the while slashing the cost of transportation by 95% from overland routes. Governor DeWitt Clinton led a nine-day procession from Buffalo to New York City on board the Seneca Chief to celebrate the opening of the Canal. The trip commenced in Buffalo on October 26, 1825, and ended in New York Harbor on November 4, at which time Governor Clinton poured water from Lake Erie into the harbor in a ceremony dubbed the "Wedding of the Waters." To commemorate the Canal's completion, which was the largest and most advanced construction project of its era anywhere in the world, the Common Council of New York City authorized a medal and put its execution in the able hands of Archibald Robertson, a contemporary American artist. Detailed information about the medals is found in Robertson's report in the 1826 publication of An Account of the Grand Canal Celebration at New York November the Fourth 1825, which itself is an appendix to Cadwallader Colden's 1825 Memoir detailing the evolution of the Erie Canal. We learn that Robertson himself designed the medal, that iron and steel worker William Williams made the dies upon which famed medalist Charles Cushing Wright engraved the designs and Richard Trested punched the legends. The medals were struck by Maltby Pelletreau of Pelletreau, Bennett and Cooke, Pelletreau being from a family of New York silversmiths dating back to colonial times. Robertson writes that "The first of my operations was to make an appropriate Device, intended for a Medal, to be worn by the guests of the Corporation [of the City of New York] on the joyful day; but time not permitting the execution of such a work as would be worthy of the occasion, it was resolved to have the Device engraved by a first-rate artist, and postpone the Medal to be executed at leisure..." A satin badge was created in lieu of the medals, using Robertson's design for the "device," a version of which appears on the medals that were eventually struck. Robertson does not elucidate when the medals were actually made, which had to be sometime between the grand November 4, 1825, New York City celebration at the end of Governor Clinton's procession (Robertson's "joyful day") and the eyewitness account of a medal published in the April 25, 1826 edition of the American Traveller newspaper, which was referenced in the August 10, 2003 issue of the E-Sylum : "Canal Medals.--We have seen one of the Medals struck in honor of the Canal celebration by order of the Corporation of New-York. On one side is Pan's visit to Neptune-with cornucopia, distant view of the ocean, light house, &c. with the inscription--"Union of Erie with the Atlantic." On the reverse, are the arms of the state; on the right the representation of the canal, with its locks, and on the left the city of New York. The medal was designed by Archibald Robertson, engraved by C.C. Wright, and struck by Pelletreu. The whole is neat and appropriate. The medals struck on composition [white metal] will be presented to all the invited guests of the corporation; silver ones will be transmitted to the President, Heads of Departments, Foreign ministers, Governors of States, &c. It is with great pleasure we learn that three gold medals will be transmitted to the surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence." The white metal impressions have been assigned the attribution HK-1 in the standard reference So-Called Dollars by Harold E. Hibler and Charles V. Kappen, the low attribution number signifying that the Erie Canal Completion medal is the oldest in the so-called dollar series, which includes more than 1,000 types. The silver and gold impressions, however, are cataloged as HK-1000 and HK-1001, respectively, the higher numbers assigned by the Hibler-Kappen reference indicating that these pieces are considered uncollectible. Indeed, most example of this type encountered in today's market are white metal impressions, HK-1, offered below. The HK-1000 silver example in this lot is scarce in an absolute sense, rare from a condition standpoint, and worthy of the strongest bids.
From the Cardinal Collection Educational Foundation.