Extremely Rare Second Size Taylor in Silver
A New Discovery; The Third Confirmed
1849 Zachary Taylor Indian Peace Medal. Silver. Second Size. Julian IP-28, Prucha-47. Specimen. VF Details--Devices Outlined (PCGS).
62.4 mm. 1584.0 grains. Pierced for suspension, as typical. Mostly light silver gray with some darker patina concentrated at some areas of the rims and in narrow outlines to the devices. The toning is a bit more irregular on the obverse than the reverse. Both sides exhibit a bit of microgranularity upon close inspection as well as fine scratches and other marks almost always encountered on issued Peace Medals. Interestingly, a few impacts from the edges of coins at Taylor's portrait (reeding marks), suggest that this probably spent some time in a bag of silver dollars or double eagles (as the coins were clearly large), and probably treated as little more than "bullion" for some part of its history. Fortunately, it was saved, and now stands as an important and very rare survivor of this issue. The outlined devices referenced by PCGS are trivial in the scheme of things-indeed, they are barely noticeable. Authentic Indian Peace Medals that were issued and did their intended service bear distinctive wear patterns unlike what might be expected of coins or other medals, a detail well understood by collectors of them. To be fairly judged, this must be taken into account, and with that in mind, this is actually a rather pleasing piece that requires little apology. Until the this piece came to our attention in April of this year, just two surviving specimens of this medal had been confirmed by us, with another unconfirmed one referenced in an institutional collection. As such, this is a rather exciting discovery as the second-size Taylor medal is one of the rarest issues in the entire American Peace Medal series (a tie with the third-size of this administration). As is the case with the large-size Taylor medals, all examples of the second size we have seen in silver were struck using the new reverse die, finished in 1846. According to Mint records, 198 examples of this size Taylor were struck for distribution, but when the president died in office, in July 1850, most remained unused and were quickly returned to the mint. It was recorded that 162 of this size remained unissued and were melted for restriking into Fillmore medals for the incoming administration. This would have left just 36 issued medals. In his extensive 1986 study of auction appearances, Carl Carlson found no auction records for these and this is one of the very rare cases where no examples were included in the extensive John J. Ford, Jr. holdings. When Michael Hodder cataloged the first of two bronze examples in the Ford sale, he commented that a silver one "may well be unobtainable by anyone," referencing the medal we sold in the Larry Ness Collection (November, 2020) as the only one known. As noted, we have confirmed three specimens: this, the Ness Specimen, and one that we offered in our March 2013 sale.