Small Medal Big Cameo Washington Lincoln
SeattleSlammer
Posts: 10,121 ✭✭✭✭✭
I just think it’s cool so I grabbed it. Only 2 graded by our host it seems with this being the top pop. US Mint not required!
8
Comments
attractive
seems unnecessary to cram non-mint issue on there. which book is this in?
I know that Musante calls that a non-Mint issue. He might be right. There are no records saying that it was struck at the Mint. On the other hand, there are also no records saying that someone else produced these. The quality is quite good. This variety isn't exactly common -- none of the medalets from this period are common -- but it is often found in excellent condition when it is found at all.
I'm working on a study of 18 mm medalets, where that is just one of about 150 related varieties. I'd be very happy to hear from someone who has more information on these pieces. Or even more speculation. :-)
Thanks @jonathanb — this one sold at Stacks last year with these notes. I didn’t get any bezel though when I purchased it.
[41.9 grains. 18.0 mm. Brilliant and absolutely choice, with visually striking unbroken frost on the motifs and deeply mirrored fields. Patches of light die spalling have left faint marks in the fields and are as made. Almost no handling is noted save for a trivial mark on Washington's cheek. This was long sealed in its original period suspension bezel, covered in glass, explaining the superb quality that is obviously better than the assigned grade indicates. The lovely bezel, with black borders indicative of mourning, is included. The crystal was accidentally broken after the previous sale and is thus lost.
Provenance: From the John M. Pack Collection. Earlier from our sale of the E Pluribus Unum Collection, November 2020, lot 4383]
I love these medaletes.
The OP's is outrageously gorgeous.
I hope is is okay to share mine. Probably someone's pocket piece back in the day:
@braddick way cool!
@braddick's piece is PR-40, one of the larger versions (25 mm rather than 18 mm). This is mine. It's not gold (much too light), even though it looks like it.
FWIW, I view that bezel as one of the stronger arguments for this being a US Mint medal. There are a decent number of known examples of those bezels containing an 18 mm medalet, probably at least a few dozen. That's not remotely close to "common", but at least it's a lot more than a one-off thing.
Almost all of the medalets enclosed in bezels are Julian-listed US Mint medals. There are lots of different varieties. I don't have a census. A quick look in the Stack's archives shows at least PR-25, PR-26, PR-28, PR-29, PR-30, PR-33, PR-35, and PR-41, some with multiple examples.
This is the only example I know of that was in a bezel despite not being listed in Julian.
FWIW, here's an example of the OP's medal in an intact bezel. There's some chance this is gold. My guess is that it's yellow-toned silver. I don't know of any way to know for sure without taking the bezel apart, which isn't going to happen.
Yep. Cool. Nice pickup.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
@jonathanb thank you for sharing your research/theory along with the pics of your example and the intact bezel example of mine ⭐️