I went to a political items convention last week, the APIC National Convention which was held in Danvers, Masschusetts. There were many great items to see and purchase. My big purchase was an 1825 John Quincy Adams inaugural medal. The dies for this piece were made by Moritz Furst, a Hungarian immigrant. Furst designed many medals for the U.S. Mint in the early 19th century. The piece is in white metal. It was also struck in silver, which is rarer, but this is rare enough. NGC has graded three of these pieces, this piece an MS-61 and two in MS-62. John Quincy Adams was no too pleased with this piece. He made a comment that the medalist was both a poor man and a poor artist. He had ordered 10 pieces in silver. Fewer than that exist today. The white metal pieces are more common with perhaps 15 or so survivors. Many of them are beat-up, and are not as nice as this one.
I suppose it must be white metal because that's how they were made, but if you ask me (from those pictures) it looks more like bronze. Do you know why he didn't like the piece? It doesn't look bad to me. Did they give him too much chin and not enough hair?
I have no idea why he didn’t like it and personally, I think it’s a beautiful coin. Glad to see that it’s in the collection of someone who will treasure it.
The bronze look may indicate that it's one of the mint's re-strikes? Though, how could that get by the TPG?
The color is whiter than it appears in the photos. I may have to go back and fool with the white balance. Some sources say a bronze example exists, but it doesn’t. Adams didn’t say why he didn’t like it. He was only turned off by it.
Did not the mint re-strike these with the original dies on bronze planchets? Or maybe they used a different reverse? I'm a bit shaky on the details of something I read a long time ago about these.
Heritage's photo's from it's most recent sale definitely show it much more as white metal: https://coins.ha.com/itm/u.s.-mint-...014.s?type=DA-DMC-PCGS-USCoins-1374-05082024#
