LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2008 Feb Long Beach, CA Tokens & Medals #462  / 

81071

1857 Buchanan Indian Peace Medal, Uncirculated

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:375.00 USD Estimated At:1.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
1857 Buchanan Indian Peace Medal, Uncirculated
<B>1857 James Buchanan Indian Peace Medal, First Size, "Mule" With Settler-Indian Reverse, Julian-IP-36, Mint State Uncertified.</B></I> Bronzed copper, 76 mm, rim 6.5 mm, 230.8 gm. Obverse by Salathiel Ellis, reverse by Joseph Willson. Although the silver Indian Peace medals bore a new reverse design by Joseph Willson depicting a plowing scene in a circular cartouche with a scalping scene around the periphery, the bronzed copper medals continued with the settler-Indian-flag reverse used during the previous administrations of Franklin Pierce and Millard Fillmore. This lovely medium-brown specimen exhibits only trivial impairments over the fields that are notably prooflike on both sides. An appealing example, not far from Choice Uncirculated! The cataloger for the Ford example (Stack's, Sale XVIII, lot 148), a Choice Uncirculated piece that brought $920, noted that this die pairing is <B>"Quite rare: </B></I>this medal marries the Buchanan obverse with the older Fillmore reverse (IP.30) and was struck, probably, before 1862. The correct reverse, showing the scalping scene also designed by Willson, was not available to the Mint for use on medals sold to the public until the designer sent it to Philadelphia in that year ... . Consequently, orders for Buchanan medals were filled by marrying two otherwise unrelated dies. These are not strictly mules since they were official products made in the absence of a more appropriate die pair. ... This medal is known only in bronzed copper. Carlson's research yielded only nine auction records for this medal."<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Coins & Currency (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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