Circa 1789 Washington Inaugural Button. The Grant Pattern. 32 Indents at Rim; Close Rays. Cobb-8b, Albert WI-7B, DeWitt-GW 1789-26, Baker-unlisted. Brass. Very Fine.

32.4 mm. Original shank intact, but bent flat. Easily Very Fine or better for sharpness, but an obvious ground find that is dark and fairly evenly porous throughout. Patches of ruddy brick patina are noted on the obverse, while soft green is seen within some of the recesses. The back exhibits larger patches of each of these tones. As noted, the detail is quite sharp, with all the details very clearly visible and well defined. The number of indents near the rim are somewhat troublesome to count because in two cases, there seem to be double impressions. We have counted each of those as two, ending up with 32 in total. These are adjacent, and near 7:30. It is possible that this feature, on other poorer quality examples could be read in one of three different ways, so it might have a hand in the various reported varieties. As noted in the description above, regardless of the matter of such minor variation, the buttons of this general design are extremely rare and virtually never offered for sale. As far as we are aware, the last we offered were the two that appeared in our Cobb Collection sale, in January 2003.

From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier ex the Dana Linett Collection, 2009.