Since when are Indian Peace Medals called "Medallic Distinctions Awarded to N. American First P

Longacre

No one is more politically correct than Longacre. However, even I tend to smirk when things go a bit over the top, even by my standards. I was finally able to get into the Stack's website (it seems some vacuum tubes blew on their end, and the staff forgot to restock the paraffin candles over the weekend). I am very excited about the upcoming John Adams sale of what I thought were Indian Peace Medals. I was shocked, however, to find out that these are now called Medallic Distinctions Awarded to North American First Peoples (what a mouthful!).

Does anyone know when the names of IPMs were changed? If it is not correct to call them IPMs anymore, I would be delighed to call these items MDATNAFP from now on.

Here is the text of Stack's announcement:

The John Weston Adams Collection of Medallic Distinctions Awarded to North American First Peoples
New York City, January 13-14, 2009

The Americana Sale
January 13-14, 2009
New York City
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Featuring
The John Weston Adams Collection
United States Coins, Medals, Tokens and Paper Money
George III. Indian Medal [before 1801]. Unsigned. First size. SilverFew collections, public or private, can rival this for importance in terms of both content and preservation. The three score and more medallic and documentary distinctions in the John W. Adams Collection include many items not represented in most holdings of First Peoples materials. The two documentary testimonials signed by the Johnsons, the silver Al Merito medal of Carlos III, and the two Honos et Virtus medals of Louis XV stand out among the highlights and are particularly notable as having eluded even John J. Ford, Jr.'s decades long acquisitional endeavors. The dynastic Domus Augustae medal of Louis XIV struck in gold needs little more than a notice of its presence here to mark Mr. Adams' collection as one to calendar.

The Adams Collection will be included as an integral part of Stack's annual Americana Sale, scheduled for January 13-14, 2009 in New York City. Since its inception a decade ago Stack's annual Americana Sale has become a favorite auction venue for offerings of important collections of medallic historical Americana.

Further details regarding the Adams Collection and the 2009 Stack's Americana Sale may be had from Q. David Bowers, Lawrence Stack, or Vicken Yegparian at 1-212-582-2580.

adamlaneus

Me like fancy words. What mean them?



Me think tree can be hugged too hard.

edix2001

Seems like normal academic language to me.

numisma

Does anyone know when the names of IPMs were changed?

It is simply a matter of choice as to what you call the medals presented in the past to Native Americans by the Federal Government. I prefer Native American Peace Medals to Indian Peace Medals, but that's just me. Stack's coined the label "Medallic Distinctions Awarded to North American First Peoples" when they cataloged John Ford's collection a few years ago. I think......unless they borrowed the phrase from another source.

If you feel that MDATNAFP is too lengthy, consider the book that I recently purchased. It is by Melvill Allan Jamieson and titled Medals Awarded to North American Indian Chiefs, 1714-1922, and to Loyal African and Other Chiefs in Various Territories Within the British Empire. Excellent book, by the way. It was first published in 1936 but was recently reprinted by Spinks.

Pistareen

It is a mouthful. That stated, peace medals is a bit of a misnomer. How does a medal depicting George III in armor that was given out to British allies during the American Revolution have anything to do with peace?

The term "distinctions" has a place in the original documents -- some distinctions were paper certificates, some were other sorts of prizes, some were medals, all given as a way of making a distinction between favored chiefs and underlings or allied tribes and those on another side. They're like name tags -- they tell you who is on what side -- or like a gold star in kindergarten.

These happen to be medallic.

First Peoples is a Canadian term. We call them "native Americans" or Indians (I prefer American Indian, personally). Australians call them aborigines. In the museum world, anything "native" is often called aboriginal or "abo" in museum slang.

There is a bit of a political statement in calling them something other than Indian Peace medals too. The Guinea Pig Principle applies.