Washington medals - resources - top 10 list?
RedSeals
Posts: 279 ✭✭✭✭✭
Hey all,
Looking to add a Washington medal (or 2 or 3) to the collection. What are some good resources online or books for information on them?
Excluding the ultra rarities and unique examples, although I suppose they would need to be included - is there a top 5 or top 10 list of most popular?
Would the board like to share their top 5/10 list?
Thanks!
Successful BST Transactions with: PerryHall, MrSlider, Cent1225, SurfinxHI, Blu62vette, robkool, gowithmygut, coinlieutenant, Downtown1974, MilesWaits, Shrub68, justindan
0
Comments
This is the reference you need (but it ain't cheap):
Neil Musante/Medallic Washington (2 volumes)
Vol. 1: 1777 to 1860
Vol. 2: 1861 to 1890
An earlier work that has been influential:
Russell R Rulau & George J. Fuld/Medallic Portraits of Washington (2nd Ed.)
There is no real 'top 10' in my opinion. Washington medals were issued, beginning during the American Revolution, throughout the 19th century and into the 20th century. They can be found in various metals; I prefer ones made from copper or bronze. They can be found in various sizes too. You need to set the boundaries (size, metal, era, etc.). Some medals focus on his presidency, his funeral/death or an anniversary, others appeared to inspire a sense of patriotism.
If you are considering just a few, I would choose 40+ mm medals in preference to smaller ones.
1. Washington-Presidency Relinquished (part of the Sansom series; struck at the U.S. Mint).
2. A death medal (funeral urn or eulogy theme).
3. A later issue, perhaps the one by Bolen (1864)--Washington's Letter to Hamilton medal (usually in white metal)
There is a medalet, counterstamped on a variety of U. S. and foreign coins in 1824: the Washington-LaFayette counterstamp medal. This two-sided counterstamp is the size of a dime. These are seldom seen, but quite historic as they were given to some spectators in crowds that witnessed the Marquis de LaFayette's return to the U. S. An example of one of these is more important than medals that were largely made for collectors, in my opinion.
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
One additional reference to consider is the new Whitman MegaRed Book which contains medals of the 1876 US Centennial Expo (catalogued by Jeff Shevlin), many of which are both Washington medals and so-called dollars. I mention this because these are collected by more than one group which gives a collector perhaps more places to look. I think Neil Musante's "Medallic Washington" book is the best reference for Washington medals (published in 2016). It has a price guide which I do not own sadly (but would love to find one day).
As for the "top 10," one medal I might suggest as a contender is one of the "3 kings" in the so-called dollar (33-45mm medals) collecting series per Jeff Shevlin -- the Valley Forge Centennial medal of 1878 in silver (designed by William Barber and struck at the US mint in Philadelphia between 1878 and 1904, with about 42-63 estimated surviving examples). It has Washington on the obverse and is listed as HK-136 in the HK book. It is also listed as J-CM-48 in the Julian book on medals of the US mint: 1700-1900. It is listed as GW-959 in Musante and as Baker-449 in the Baker book. It's hard to find and not cheap (the one below is $6300 in MS-65 and with pretty toning in hand, not demonstrated in the photo however). In hand, it has lots of colorful edge toning, including blue/purple.
A So-Called Dollar and Slug Collector... Previously "Pioneer" on this site...
Generally most popular can be the opposite of excessively rare.
In terms of popularity, here's a candidate. It's a medal showing medals! This comes in different compositions, so overall it's reasonably popular, but silver is a bit rare.
Circa 1860 U.S. Mint Washington Cabinet Medal - Silver, Plain edge - Musante GW-241, Baker-326, Julian MT-23 - PCGS SP65 - Ex. E. Pluribus Unum
University of Notre Dame (special collections) has an online reference. This project features descriptions and images of the coins, tokens and medals depicting George Washington from 1783 to 1889. I'm not sure when it was last updated (website was created in 1997).
https://coins.nd.edu/WashToken/WashTokenContents/Introduction.html
The UND collection website https://coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/index.html was created by a numismatic endowment
Also try the Mount Vernon museum collection at
https://emuseum.mountvernon.org/collections/45516/coins-and-medals
@Zoins thanks for the suggestion!
I grabbed this from HA yesterday, among a few others.
@DrDarryl thanks for the links!
Successful BST Transactions with: PerryHall, MrSlider, Cent1225, SurfinxHI, Blu62vette, robkool, gowithmygut, coinlieutenant, Downtown1974, MilesWaits, Shrub68, justindan
Unfortunately, the "speckly" surfaces strongly suggest that one is a 20th century restrike, and it wasn't cataloged as such. Compare the original and restrike that Stack's sold today (lots 7042-7043):
Write up from Stacks on the SP65 (Copper):
Circa 1860 U.S. Mint Washington Cabinet medal. Musante GW-241, Baker-326A, Julian MT-23. Copper. SP-65 (PCGS). 59.5 mm. Another lovely Cabinet medal, this one seemingly struck in copper rather than with a bronzed finish. Light chocolate brown surfaces display attractive yet subtle pastel green, rose and violet highlights in the reflective fields. The finish of this medal is the most mirrored of the three offered here, the dies having undergone a fairly extensive polishing between the striking of this and the ones previous. Here, the signature of Paquet is quite weak, with traces of four letters of his name visible, and only two completely so. This is a minor technical matter only, as this is a most handsome example in superb condition, probably from the 1880s. Provenance: Ex William Spohn Baker Collection, to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by bequest, November 15, 1897. Click here for certification details from PCGS.
So probably a restrike from the 1880s then it looks like?
Successful BST Transactions with: PerryHall, MrSlider, Cent1225, SurfinxHI, Blu62vette, robkool, gowithmygut, coinlieutenant, Downtown1974, MilesWaits, Shrub68, justindan