1797 George Washington General Grand Master Medal. Musante GW-29, Baker-288D, var. Uniface in Old Sheffield Plate. Engrailed Edge. AU-53 (PCGS).36.2 mm. 129.6 grains. Pierced for suspension at 12 oclock. Medium silver gray dominates the obverse while mottled darker patina is noted closer to the rims. Scattered light ruddy oxidation in places, mostly seen in the central recesses of the design. Mostly glossy texture upon first glance, but closer inspection reveals faint granularity, numerous surface marks and tiny scratches. The plain reverse exhibits an almost even mix of remnant silvery plating and mottled green and red oxidation. The obverse is considerably more significant, overall, of course, and as General Grand Master medals come, this is a very acceptable specimen. Even the more desirable bronze strikes are often seen with aggressive planchet flaws and other issues. This example faces up rather nicely and the Sheffield plate surface reads pleasantly as silver in the minds eye, a composition for the medal that is known but effectively too rare to obtain. Just two are believed to exist, one in a private collection of long standing, ex Garrett, and another has not been seen since the 1882 Bushnell sale.<p>This is a very rare medal and opportunities to acquire it are few and far between in any form. Though we have had an unusual number of appearances in recent years in the two-sided bronze format, this trend is not likely to continue as these medals tend to land in advanced collections and stay there for a long time. It is unclear why pieces like this exist, although it has been suggested that they were one-sided and intended for snuff box lids, or similar uses. That said, three of the four uniface pieces known to us are pierced for suspension, suggesting a different kind of display in practice.<p>The cabinets of David Dreyfuss, Gilbert Steinberg, Lucien LaRiviere, and Charles Wharton were all missing this type in any form, and these omissions are notable. The Norweb family owned a holed brass specimen but donated it to Western Reserve Historical Society. It is now at Colonial Williamsburg.<p>Through a combination of George Fulds survey of specimens, published in 2009, and our own efforts, we are fairly confident of 17 known survivors struck in brass, and two-sided. In addition, a couple more institutionally owned ones have been reported but remain unconfirmed. There are also the two mentioned silver ones and four uniface examples, including this.<p>As given in our recent sale of the fabulous brass R. Coulton Davis specimen:<p><em>the connection of these medals to Peter Getz of Lancaster [Pennsylvania] is both evident and undocumented. The portrait on this medal is not a precise match for those found on the 1792 private patterns by the Lancaster silversmith, but it is either by the same hand or, quite possibly, a copyists attempt. The detail on the epaulet is quite different, but otherwise the portrait here is plainly copying the 1792 pieces by Getz. Numismatic tradition has long attributed these to Getzs hand, and even today hes as good a guess as any. Getz was an active mason in Lancaster, was master of his local lodge in 1794, and he worked as a die engraver in this era. However, Neil Musante suggested in his </em>Medallic Washington<em> that this medal was probably not by Getz. His reasoning is arguable (it hinged on the famous but now broken ladle owned by a Virginia Masonic lodge), but his conclusion is probably right.</em><p><em></em><em>The key piece of evidence in identifying the authorship of this medal was discovered in an unusual place: the archives of the descendants of Adam Eckfeldt, which hit the market in 2014, specifically a manuscript entitled "An inventory of Coining Machines taken from Richard Harpers & sent to the Mint of United States by order of the Mayor of this City Aug. 29th, 1797." The authors of </em>1792: Birth of a Nations Coinage<em> make the assumption that Richard Harper was the son of the recently deceased minter and sawmaker John Harper of Philadelphia, who died in either late 1796 or early 1797. The inventory is fascinating, including "1 Coining press compleat [sic] with a Leaver without balls," a cutting press, a rolling press, and most everything else someone would need to operate a private mint. For our purposes, the dies on hand are most interesting. They include a single die for "Jersey half pence" along with "2 Dies of General Washington Heads" and "1 [die] of the face Masons coat of Arms." In other words, this 1797 inventory from the estate of John Harper appears to list the obverse and reverse dies of this exact medal.</em><p><em>As a coiner, Harper is not necessarily the engraver of this medal; indeed, he may have been contracted by an engraver like Getz to produce them. Sawmakers werent usually the artistic sort, but someone had to have engraved the dies for the cents Harper struck privately in 1795, now known as "Jefferson Head" cents. It could have been Harper, or Getz, or someone else entirely.</em>From the Richard August Collection. Earlier ex Wayte Raymond; New Netherlands Coin Companys Sale #52, August 1952, lot 4548; George Fuld; Richard Picker, 1967; Alan V. Weinberg.
