1867 John Adams Bolen Store Card / Libertas Americana Muling. Musante JAB-30. Silver. Edge Marked B SILVER ONLY ONE STRUCK. MS-64 (PCGS).25.4 mm. 183.7 grains. Soft gray silver on the motifs and rims, while the fields are gently toned pleasing pale blue. A few light hairlines in the fields, but beautifully struck on a medium-thick flan and quite pretty. As with other Bolen reference collection pieces, this is marked on the edge as noted above, identifying it as unique. Johnson, in 1882, gave the mintage in silver as one, and it is said that he had worked, at least in part, from Bolens personal reference set. That would mean his entry came directly from the edge of this medal. Which, as an aside, is notable for an error. Interestingly, the K punch in STRUCK was applied with a 90-degree rotation, which supports the assertion by Musante that Bolens vision was somewhat failed.<p>Returning to mintage figures, the 1868 <em>AJN</em> listing gave the mintage as three in silver. This was within a year of the cutting of the dies, and taken from information supplied directly by Bolen and Major C.P. Nichols, who cooperated in getting the data to the ANS for publication. It seems unlikely that the error would be in that listing, but there is always room for error so it cant be discounted. This said, Musante had found no auction appearances of a silver medal from these dies, and we have none in our online archives (beyond this example), so there is evidence to suggest that this is, in fact, unique in this composition. In either case, it is certainly unique for its edge markings, as Bolens personal specimen.From the Claremont Collection. Earlier from the personal reference collection of John Adams Bolen; our sale of the E Pluribus Unum Collection, November 2021 Baltimore Auction, lot 10230; our sale of the Martin Logies Collection, Spring 2023 Auction, March, lot 2062.
