1864 John Adams Bolen Store Card. Musante JAB-12, Fuld-760A-7b. Brass. MS-62 (NGC).28 mm. Somewhat mottled olive-gold surfaces with brighter golden outlines around the portrait and elsewhere in the protected recesses. A granular surface texture is unusual, but uniform. Though this composition is unlisted in the old references on Bolens works, it appeared in Donald Millers listing and was in his collection. As far as we know it is unique. Musante noted one identified as oreide in our 1982 (Bowers & Ruddy) New York Public Library sale that included the F.C.C. Boyd Collection of Bolen medals, and proposed that the Miller listing might be the same medal. However, the provenance of this piece seems to have taken a very different route, passing from early 20th century dealer Joseph Barnet to Miller (via Syracuse Coin Shop), to Litman, to Bowers, to Tanenbaum. We have never seen another. Quoting Q. David Bowers (who owned it twice) from our last offering of this piece, in June 2017, "...Unique. If you are a Bolen token specialist or hope to become one, this token...will make your collection definitive." It realized $2,820 in that sale.From the Claremont Collection. Earlier ex Joseph Barnet; Syracuse Coin Shop; Donald Miller; Charles Litman; Q. David Bowers; Stephen L. Tanenbaum; our sale of the Q. David Bowers Collection, June 2017 Baltimore Auction, lot 9097.
