1781 Comte de Milly Lodge of Nine Sisters Jeton. Feuardent-4413 var. Silver, 31 mm. AU-55 (PCGS). 133.4 grains. Reeded edge. A fine and rare jeton by Bernier, using the same reverse die as the Franklin jeton above. Attractive antique silver gray with lighter silver highlights and darker toning around the peripheries. A pleasing piece with no major issues, just trivial hairlines and a batch of old scratches in the left reverse field. Unlisted in Feuardent in this composition, we find no recent sales of a silver example. Interestingly, this jeton and the copper one that follows were not only struck from different obverse dies, but the portrait hubs of de Milly are entirely different as well. That two portraits and two dies would survive hardening and be put into use for such a tiny production is puzzling. The Comte de Milly was a French nobleman who led the Lodge of the Nine Sisters in 1783; it was he who officially invited Franklin to the May 1783 ceremony where the new Franklin portrait jeton was presented. From the Richard Margolis Collection. Earlier from Alain Weils (Cannes) auction of November 2003, lot 145.
