Undated (ca. 1720) John Law / Money's the Watchword Medal. Betts-120, Adams-28. Silver. AU Details--Cleaned (PCGS).
37.8 mm. 235.5 grains. Deep teal, pastel blue, and faint lilac toning combine over light silver gray surfaces. Both sides are fairly covered with marks, pin scratches, and evidence of cleaning. The devices remain sharp, and the in-hand visual appeal is still positive. The obverse shows two guards leaning in with a whisper while one hides a bag of money behind him, giving the legend "Money is the watchword" a double meaning. The other side shows a man holding a money bag aloft while coins pour through a hole in the bottom, surrounded by legends translating to "As it comes, so it goes" and, in the exergue, "nothing remains left over." Ford owned two of these, both pretty nice; one brought $3,220, the other $2,990. The two Heritage sold for John Adams in 2014 brought just a fraction of that, but two more sold in 2019 brought $2,640 and $12,000. We've sold just three of these since the 2006 Ford sale, most recently a PCGS AU-55 in August 2023 for $4,320.
From the Joe Foster Collection. Earlier ex Richard Cooper Collection; Geoffrey Bell Auctions' sale of September 2017, lot 1271.

Estimate: $2000