Undated (ca. 1867) George Washington / The Union is the Main Prop of Our Liberty Medal. By John Adams Bolen. Musante JAB-25, Musante GW-796, Baker-259C. White Metal. MS-63 (PCGS).25.5 mm. Bold prooflike reflectivity in the fields contrasts sharply with the satiny devices. The obverse shows light handling in the fields, but the reverse is strikingly well preserved and the overall appearance is as nice as ever seen. We have only four or five examples in white metal in our archives (a lower-graded one was unplated), so this is a very rare medal desired by both Bolen and Washington collectors alike. Only three were supposedly struck by Bolen in this metal, so it would seem that Kline did strike some, but the number must have been very small indeed. None appear in the Heritage archives at all, in any metal that we could find. This came from the landmark collection of William Spohn Baker, who would have bought it within a few years of striking at the very longest - if from Kline, it could have been made to order. It realized a substantial $1,800 in our November 2019 sale of that extraordinarily historic collection. Struck on a thin planchet.From the Claremont Collection. Earlier from William Spohn Baker to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by bequest, November 15, 1897; our Baltimore Auction of November 2019, lot 20559.
