1783 Treaty of Paris Medal. Betts-610. Silver, 40.6 mm. AU-55 (PCGS).

290.6 grains. An old friend from our (Stack's) 2009 Americana sale, where we described this piece as follows: "Beautiful if faint toning of blue and rose shades envelopes deep gray surfaces in highly attractive fashion. Some lustre remains in the fields, a few scattered nicks but no serious distractions. Double struck to bring up detail, as such a contrast with the singly-struck specimens in softer tin format. While relatively common in white metal, this medal is quite rare in silver. The present piece, one of two owned by John Ford, would be a red-letter addition to an advanced collection of Betts medals." Since this piece was sold in the Ford XIV sale, the only other discrete example of this Betts number in silver we've offered was in our November 2015 sale of medals from the John W. Adams Collection. That piece, an EF with scratches, brought $3,290 eight years ago. Though Ford had two of these, we'd be shocked if the number extant reached two figures. The quality and originality of this piece sets it apart, but so too does its special status as a crown-sized silver medal from 1783. Collectors should be aware that a fairly crude (and dramatically undersized) modern counterfeit of this Betts number exists, sometimes sold as a silver Betts-610.

PCGS# 800886.

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From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier ex Wayne Raymond; our (Stack's) sale of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, Part XIV, May 2006, lot 275; our (Stack's) Americana sale, January 2009, lot 5542.