I will post pictures soon, but looking for knowledge. In some old family items, I have found a 1829 Andrew Jackson Peace Medal and attached to it is a medal I do not recognize. The Obverse has a portrait of Martin Van Buren, and states his birthdate. The Reverse has a scale, is dated 1840 and has Weighed In The Balance and Found Wanting written around the outer edge. It also has a ribbon with what appears to be "High Democrat" on it. Was this like a campaign medal? Any help would be appreciated. Also, what is the easiest way to tell the material of the Peace medal with damaging? Thanks
You may very well have two original presidential medals. As described, they are both recorded in Satterlee's "The Presidential Series" of 1862. Very good reading, it is found here. We would need photos, but I would almost bet they're genuine.
Pics .... Any help in identification would be appreciated Okay...still looking to get fully knowledgeable about these two pieces. Here are some quick pics, I will work on cleaner ones.... The Jackson Peace medal is 2" in diameter...or about 50+mm The Van Buren medal is about 7/8" of an inch in diameter. Any help would be appreciated.
These look genuine to me. Patination, size, looping, all looks right. My recommendation is get good photos and e-mail them to Rich Hartzog ( hartzog@exonumia.com ). He has been helpful to me with a token in the past. He is the operator of exonumia.com, and is a specialist in tokens, medals, etc. I would e-mail him photos and measurements (in MM) and he should be able to tell if they are real. I'm putting my money on genuine. Very nice!!!
I'd call it a victory medal. It is noted in Satterlee (link above) as a "Presidential Medal". I would say that with the "High Democrat" ribbon (which may be original to the Van Buren medal) it is a victory medal, with its reverse sorta gloating against the Whigs. Edit: Just thought I'd add, in 1840 I'm sure there was no better way to rub the Whigs' nose in it than to make a Biblical reference comparing them to King Belshazzar from the Book of Daniel.
The only sales reference I could find right off, one of the Van Burens in pristine shape sold in 2007 for $207 at Heritage. The real deal is the Jefferson though. I don't wanna jump to conclusions, but if it is genuine (and the descriptions from exonumia.com sound like it could be) well the last sale on one in much worse shape on Heritage was $10k+ in 2006.
Thinking of loaning the Peace Medal to a Native American Museum....anyone have thoughts as to this? Never had a museum item before, but this appears to be of that type.
DeWitt, J. Doyle. A Century of Campaign Buttons: 1789-1889. Hartford, Conn.: privately printed, 1959. Revised as Sullivan, 1982. Now out of print. If found to be more than likely genuine, I would submit them to NGC for authentication and grading. A museum loan is not a bad idea, but remember that, for the most part, once something goes into a museums general collection that is where it stays. It is a very philanthropic gesture, but can be difficult to reacquire the piece if you ever chose to do so. Just my opinion. Merry Christmas!!!
Eventually, a museum might be a good choice. But, as blsmothermon stated, once there it would be extremely difficult to get back. It would get tied up with the internal bureaucracy and could take years to get it sorted out. Also, museums have their own methods of conservation and protection and it may not be conducive to what coin collectors accept. Anything I've ever "donated" to a museum, to me, was considered a gift and I don't ever expect to see it again. You may just want to keep that piece in the family. It appears to be rare and valuable if genuine.
Edit: Just thought I'd add, in 1840 I'm sure there was no better way to rub the Whigs' nose in it than to make a Biblical reference comparing them to King Belshazzar from the Book of Daniel. Absolutely true! The Whigs and Democrats of the 1820-1850's were BITTER rivals. I spent the summer reading "American Lion" (Andrew Jackson) by Jon Meacham and Robert Merry's, "A Country of Vast Designs" a great work about James K Polks manifest destiny presidency. Going to read about Henry Clay to get the other side of the story! Merry Christmas everybody, and Happy, Health 2011 to all! Steve
If you are considering loaning these medals to a museum, I would suggest you have your attorney draft a letter of conditional loan to the museum board of directors. I would try to get documentation of authenticity for each medal . It's a nice idea you have, but it's a bit more entailed, than just handing the medals over, if you want to be assured, at some point they will be returned to you or your heirs. Good luck.
:thumb: Very good advice Coinman0456 :thumb: Regarding museums, though honorable, the medals are a family piece. Unless there is no one to pass it down to, I would hold onto it for my future generations. That's just me and I tend to be greedy by nature. The thing that just blows me away about the Jefferson Peace Medal is it's A M A Z I N G condition. That is one point about Peace medals that Rich makes on www.exonumia.com. Peace medals are almost never in good shape, as they were given out to Native American Chiefs and were treasued by them. To them, to treasure something meant to wear it and show it off constantly, thus many are worn practically smooth. I don't know if you have looked at Heritage Auctions, but I thought I'd include some photos. It is NGC graded a VF25 and sold for $10,000 06/03/06. Given that info, if yours is genuine, I would have a difficult time guessing what the value could be. Here's the $10k medal, Merry Christmas all!
I have a DeWitts, and the Martin Van Buren item is listed as id MVB 1840-9, Satterlee #65, and Bushnell (Election Medalets) #10. This token is made of brass and should be 24 mm in diameter. No value or rarity is given. The token in the reference plate photo is also holed, as many of these political tokens were as issued. I also have Rita Laws' Book entitled "Indian Peace Medals and Related Items: Collecting the Symbols of Peace and Friendship". 2nd edition (2005). In her book, there are many cautions about how rare these medals are, and how many counterfeits there are about, many of which are quite well executed. The government also produced restrikes for collectors. I have little personal knowledge in this area, but when I compared pics of the OP's medal to the pics of the medal blsmothermon posted that Heritage sold, it became quickly apparent to me that the two were not struck from the same dies. There is a slight possibility of being original, as often more than one die was used, but I would lean toward it being a restrike or copy. Laws also noted that a pedigree, or history, of ownership of the medal is important to show authenticity, but there are some experts who can provide that determination if its history is not known.
