(c.1867) Medal JAB-27 Silver, Thin Plan Jackson-Old Soldier MS(PCGS#810996)

November 2021 Baltimore U.S. Coins auction

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

10220

等级

MS64

价格

9,174

详细说明

Important Stern Old Soldier in Silver Perhaps Just Two or Three Originals Struck Bolen's Reference Specimen Undated (ca. 1867) Jackson / The Stern Old Soldier medal by J.A. Bolen. Musante JAB-27. Silver. Marked “B SILVER” on edge. MS-64 (PCGS). 25.3 mm. 137.4 grains. Pleasing soft blue-green toning over deep gray silver. Fairly uniform on both sides, though the reverse is slightly less so. Light hairlines on the obverse and a few scattered surface marks as is consistent with the silver examples in this offering, which have largely been together since the 1860s when they were placed in custom collector boards by their maker. Strongly prooflike and nicely struck on a relatively thin flan. The 2011 offering of the Q. David Bowers Collection included two silver examples of this medal, one described as on a thick planchet and the other on a thin one, the latter believed then to perhaps be a restrike by J.W. Kline. However, the present piece is lighter in weight than either of the Bowers specimens and, with its edge mark, it is definitively a Bolen original, from his own personal collection. This clarifies that thick flan pieces, generally believed to be Bolen's originals are not necessarily so. The thin planchet in the Bowers Collection was a later die state, however, and probably actually by Kline. Neither the American Numismatic Society nor Massachusetts Historical Society collections include this medal in silver, nor did the Musante Collection. The 1868 AJN listing did in fact give the mintage in silver as three, but we have seen more than that, so Kline almost certainly made some. This is without question Bolen's personal original example, and outstanding as such. Board Position: D 1/4 Provenance: From the E Pluribus Unum Collection. Earlier from the personal reference collection of John Adams Bolen.