(1783) Gold Washington & Independence Restrike, Plain Edge PR(PCGS#908167)

Winter 2022 U.S. Coins Auction

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

2111

Grade

AU Details

Price

21,600

Lot Description

Extremely Rare Washington Draped Bust Circa 1860 Reissue in Gold “1783” (Circa 1860) Washington Draped Bust Reissue by W.S. Taylor. No Button. Musante GW-107, Baker-3B, Breen-1196, Vlack 16-K. Gold. Plain edge. AU Details--Damage (PCGS). 28.1 mm. 210.6 grains. An impressive rarity from a series that is generally available in bronze, scarcely seen in silver and virtually never seen in this most precious metal. Lovely warm golden color with a nuance of soft orange in places. Generously prooflike through the fields while the devices are sharp and satiny. Edges somewhat filed in places. Likely made to fulfill the order of a prominent collector at the time of the American Civil War, when the appeal of all Washington medals perhaps enjoyed its most vigorous state. However, it seems to have fallen out of careful hands, as a few prominent obverse nicks might indicate. These join the virtually customary few light hairlines and a couple of small patches of edge tooling which could speak to a long-ago removed mount. Close study also reveals a very faint reverse field engraving. It seems to be a date, 1808, which would not correspond to this piece in any way, but perhaps to a birth date or something else entirely. This is faint, but unmistakable once located. Vlack dies 16-K, the obverse apparently in an earlier die state than on another example we offered from this die pair in our November 2010 sale. That seems to have been from a fairly worn state, with the dentils faded and apparent die flowlines in the fields, whereas these dentils are crisp. Additionally, pronounced repunching on the 1 and 7 in the date (not mentioned by Musante in the die listings) is very clear, and much bolder than seen on the 17-L die pairing. Other strong repunching is noted on the A and first N of WASHINGTON, Baker was unaware of impressions in gold, but Fuld added the footnote, “two struck in gold” to his 1965 revision of Baker’s work. Breen listed this in gold, citing Fuld’s note, but also giving two somewhat vague specimens, one “Henry Chapman, 1909-Brand-Pvt. coll” and the second, “Reported.” Virgil Brand did have one, which was sold to Wayte Raymond in 1933, but that is all we have been able to confirm. The Rulau-Fuld revision of Baker lists a 1907 Chapman sale, but we have been unable to find it. It also references the October 1960 Colonial Newsletter,but that doesn’t seem to include any information either. Rulau-Fuld also lists the gold impression(s?) with engrailed edges, while this one is plain. That is likely an error or assumption, as it is the most typical edge of the reissues. Perhaps another does indeed have that edge treatment, but whether another even exists is somewhat in question. No gold examples appear in our online archives and we don’t recall having handled another. None of the following important presentations of Washington medals produced one in gold: Garrett, Dreyfuss, Collins (FPL featuring the F.C.C. Boyd medals, or his collection), Steinberg, LaRiviere, Norweb, Wharton, Ford, or Baker. Syd Martin stands alone. Provenance: From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier ex Anthony Terranova; Lawrence R. Stack Collection, November 2006. Click here for certification details from PCGS. Image with the PCGS TrueView logo is obtained from and is subject to a license agreement with Collectors Universe, Inc. and its divisions PCGS and PSA. Click here to see Coins in Motion.[“Coins]