Comitia Americana medals from the John W. Adams collection

Zoins

Just ran across this Stack's Bowers ad for the upcoming sale of the Comitia Americana medal collection of John W. Adams. Has anyone seen his collection?

Of note, the ANS has an online "authority" biography for John Weston Adams. This is the first time I noticed a biography of a living person by ANS. Anyone else have such a biography? I found biographies for older authors like George Joseph Fuld and James Pollock but not the few living authorities I searched.

http://numismatics.org/authority/adams_john_w

BillJones

I have a significant collection of these medals, but nothing like what Mr. Adams has. The trick is to get as many pieces as possible that are original issues from the Paris Mint. Failing that, Paris Mint piece, with an edge marking, that provides the era in which it was was struck from the original die pair is next. That is followed by 19th century strikes by the U.S. Mint.

Cheapest and easiest options are the 20th century U.S Mint strikes plus the Paris Mint reproduction of the Libertas Americana medal followed by the 1976 Bicentennial set in pewter.

Only the Henry Lee medal was made in America. That piece has a murky history. It is possible to acquire an example in bronze, struck with the original obverse die and a replacement reverse die.

I will give the second part of a two part series about the history of these medals this month at my local club.

ricko

That medal is a real beauty... should bring quite a price. Cheers, RickO