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George Washington Inaugural Button LONG LIVE THE PRESIDENT Heavy Dot Script GW

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:6,000.00 USD Estimated At:6,000.00 - 9,000.00 USD
George Washington Inaugural Button LONG LIVE THE PRESIDENT Heavy Dot Script GW
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Washington Buttons
Extremely Rare (1789) “LONG LIVE THE PRESIDENT” George Washington Inaugural Button With Ringed Star
(1789) George Washington Inaugural Button. Heavy Dotted Script “GW.” With “LONG LIVE THE PRESIDENT” and Star at Bottom Ringed with 10 Dots. Brass. Blank reverse, With Shank, Albert (RAU) WI-9A. WHB-11A. DeWitt GW1789.2. Cobb-10. Choice About Extremely Fine.
Rarity-4. 35 mm. This Extremely Rare major design type of George Washington Inaugural Button has the legend “LONG LIVE THE PRESIDENT” in large Block letters set in a recessed outer ring going all the way around the button. Inside this is a raised blank ring, which surrounds the Dotted Cursive Script letters “GW” in the center of a lightly stippled background field. Blank plain reverse type “A” with a full strong straight shank (possibly original or replaced). At the bottom, in the recessed ring, there is a 6-Pointed Star surrounded by a ring of tiny dots. It was probably intended to place 12 dots around this center star, yet only 10 dots are present, with spaces for 2 more. (On a 1943 reproduction shown in the Albert catalog, only six dots surround the center star and the background of the central “GW” and legend does not have a stippled finish and is smooth with other differences in the letters). This current original design type is as shown illustrated on the dust jacket for WASHINGTON HISTORICAL BUTTONS by Alphaeus H. Albert, 1949.

The two missing tiny dots may be historically significant. At the time of Washington’s Inauguration, two states had not yet ratified the Constitution of the United States (North Carolina and Rhode Island). The two missing dots may well represent those two states. The button listed here is an “original” with 10 dots present, in lightly toned brass, lacking the shank on the otherwise plain reverse. An example of this button, in choice AU condition, sold in the January 21, 2003, Stack’s J. Harold Cobb Collection Sale, Lot 1344 for $17,000 (hammer price). In our EAHA Auction of August 22, 2014 we sold lot 379 graded About EF lacking a shank for $11,800 and subsequently on February 9, 2018 lot 135 graded Choice EF lacking a shank brought $8,400. This specimen has a shank, is clean in appearance and has pleasing natural subdued brass color with nice details and is free of any major detractions. Showing overall honest expected circulation, it is attractive and an excellent example for display of this extremely rare major George Washington Inaugural Button type.