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Message:: [QUOTE="johnmilton, post: 24725127, member: 101855"]The "real" Indian peace medals were made of silver and given to the Indians as peace offerings. I have collected a few of them in copper. If you are interested in them, that is the safest way to go. The copper pieces were made for collectors. The 19th century mintage on the Andrew Johnson medal I posted is 10 pieces. I don't if it is really that rare, but there are not many of them. These pieces were also made in the 20th century with the "yellow bronze" sand blasted surface. Those pieces are worth a lot less money, and are not very attractive IMO. Here is an example of a Jefferson Indian Peace medal is "yellow bronze." [ATTACH=full]1581877[/ATTACH] I saw an example of the Johnson medal in silver many years ago. The asking price was $70,000, which was a lot more money back then than it is today. I wouldn't touch that piece with a 10 foot pole. If the government decided that it was taken from an Indian, they will confiscate it. It does not matter if you paid an Indian for it, you are still in the soup. Here is a 19th century strike of the Jefferson Indian Peace medal. The pictures are not very good because the piece is slabbed. [ATTACH=full]1581879[/ATTACH] The die crack on the reverse indicates that this piece was stuck with the original, early 1800s die, which was a big plus for me. Lewis and Clark took a number of these medals with them, in three sizes, when they conducted their famous expedition.[/QUOTE]