WOW! And thank you for sharing and the information. I downloaded Audible's "Washington" by Ron Chernow. It took a long time to listen to it in my car while I was travelling. If you love history, this book will tell you more about General George Washington than you ever knew. Not one minute was wasted listening to this "book".
For Washingtoniana there the classic Baker, of course, and then Rulau and Fuld, and now the gorgeous 2-volume work of Neil Musante, Medallic Washington.
I also found the Comitia Americana book by Adams and Bentley to be well researched and easy to read. It seems like I found it on eBay and the price was a little negotiable. I have three others I am wading through including the Musante and Fuld/Rulau. A bit of confusion, and study, is that everyone seems to have their own classification methodology. I ran into an auction listing that had more than six or seven classifications on the listing. Your observation on the Musante book is spot on. I believe it to be high quality printing, great color images, and solid research. The killer book by Julian was a back breaker. Difficult to find and boy are people proud of them. I will never confess to my wife what I had to pay. But I will sort it out in time.
Well 99.999999% of us are never going to have an opportunity to own one of the originals of this medal, so the recent Paris Mint restrikes are a good way to gain an appreciation for this medal commemorating Washington's victory over the British at Boston.
I am finding that there are a number of the JPJ medals out there for purchase. But what I am not finding is auction records that would document reasonable prices and they seem to swing widely. I assume not replicated as often as the Libertas Americana, but there seem to have been a number of reissues.
I just picked this one up and my first in the JPJ medal group. I have several more to send into PCGS for grading, but I had a chance to pick this NGC one up and it looked to me to be under graded.
I recently had PCGS grade a number of Washington Before Boston medals with some good result. Several of these had no examples in the database, so hopefully we advanced the hobby a little with good, solid examples. c. 1890 GW-09-US2 SP63BN c. 1890 GW-09-US2 SP62 c. 1880 - 1910 GW-09-P4 SP63 C. 1950 GW-09-US3 SP64
A 2x2 "mini" holder (perhaps with enough depth to put the label & holographic seal there) would be a useful innovation. I somewhat prefer the ANACs slabs for their slim form factor.
Here are my latest additions to the collection This is a Bronze 5th Reverse GW-09-P5 (c. 1910-30) Paris Medal, Graded SP64 This is a Bronze Repaired Dies GW-09-P4 (c. 1880-1910) Paris Medal, Graded SP61 This is a Bronze Restrike J-NA-1, Graded SP63
I thought that I was in a small group of people that love Washington memorabilia. Each entry above are beautiful. I think that you all opened Pandora's (sp? box of Washington. Thanks to all.
I am just getting into these and I find the medals fascinating. Great history in addition to great art.
Latest Acquisition From Great Collections and not a rare item, but so far the only one PCGS has seen. It graded out as SP65.