1839 gold medal of Revolutionary War general called the "most shocking and important discovery" in years https://www.cbsnews.com/news/daniel...l-1839-discovery-auction/?ftag=CNM-00-10aac3a Interesting story. The original medal, designed by Augustin Dupre, was struck in Paris in 1789 to honor Daniel Morgan, stolen from a bank vault in 1818 and never recovered, restruck in 1839, bought by J.P. Morgan around 1885, and not seen since. It reappeared in recent months in its original US Mint case. The SP63 grade makes me chuckle a little...
The auction listing has more detail than the CBS article. It's possible that the original medal is at the bottom of the Ohio river. Or melted down, or who knows, of course. One of the bank robbers, Joseph Pluymart, escaped five times (!) and was on the run for 10 years afterwards. The story of this 1839 restrike is also quite interesting. And what I summarized originally from the CBS article was wrong - it passed "out of the family" at some point after 1914 when Jesse Neville died, not 1885. Then "it was acquired from a descendent of J. Pierpont Morgan, Jr" but the chain of ownership seems deliberately murky, perhaps to conceal the identity of the current owner. https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/l...after-dupre-betts-593-julian-mi-7-loubat-8-sp
Here is one of the Bronze pieces that were made in France after the dies were re-created for the replacement gold medal. These pieces are scarce in their own right. This one was struck from the dies at the Philadelphia Mint, probably in the 1860s. Most collectors and art critics think that this is the most attractive of all of the Comitia American medals. The original medal was made from dies by Augustin Dupre. His best known work among American collectors is the Libertas Americana medal. There are about 200 of these known, but their great popularity as made them quite expensive.
Wow! I probably couldn't afford any one of the "coins", but it sure would look nice in my collection.