Original ferrous loop intact. One of the rarest and most important of all American medals, with just four specimens known to exist, of which this may be the finest. Conceived in 1790 by Thomas Jefferson, struck in Paris in 1792 from dies by Augustin Dupre, the Diplomatic Medal emerged from the very earliest days of the Republic and its nascent foreign policy. Since the end of the Civil War, collectors have had the opportunity to acquire a specimen of this rarity at public auction just four times, in 1882, 1981, 1990, and 2004. This example has never before been offered in a major American auction.The obverse depicts the first version of the Great Seal of the United States ever executed in medallic form, correctly showing the olive branch of peace at dexter (eagles right) and the arrows of war at sinister (eagles left, viewers right). The eagle holds a banner inscribed with the national motto E PLURIBUS UNUM in his beak and an escutcheon or shield is displayed on his breast. A glory of 13 stars is atop the obverse, and the legend THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA surrounds the arms at the periphery. On the reverse, an allegory of America, in her common guise as a Native American princess, holds a cornucopia or horn of plenty and gestures to bundles and a hogshead beside an anchor. She is approached by Mercury as Commerce, holding his caduceus. A ship representing Atlantic commerce and interactions with Europe is in his background. The legend TO PEACE AND COMMERCE is appropriate to the scene; the date July 4, 1776 is rendered in Roman numerals in the exergue.This specimen shows olive tan toning over its smooth surfaces. Various light marks are seen, including two parallel nicks on the right side of the obverse shield, some trivial scratches under the right side of the reverse exergue, a light scuff on the reverse rim below 9 oclock, and an impression that resembles denticles visible on the rim around the upper left obverse and upper right reverse. The original mount is present, somewhat oxidized but undamaged. The obverse shows three distinct strikes, suggesting the amount of force required to raise the design on even a large screw press. The reverse, showing only trivial evidence of multiple strikes, was likely the anvil (bottom) die.Approved by George Washington, influenced by John Adams and William Temple (grandson of Benjamin) Franklin, and brought to fruition by Augustin Dupre, the United States Diplomatic medal was the pet project of Thomas Jefferson. Appointed Secretary of State by President Washington on September 26, 1789, Jefferson returned home the following month from Paris, where he had been serving as Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Louis XVI. The following spring, in April 1790, he hatched a plan to create gifts for diplomats dispatched to the United States, just as the crowned heads of Europe gave symbols of appreciation to the ambassadors assigned to their governments. After receiving approval from President George Washington, Jefferson asked his charge daffaires in Paris, William Short, to see the project to fruition, suggesting either Duvivier or Dupre as likely authors of the medal, as they "seem to be the best workmen, perhaps the last is the best of the two."Though well versed in the ways and means of diplomatic gift exchange, Jefferson reached out to William Temple Franklin for advice on the subject. Franklin answered in long form on April 27, 1790. He told Jefferson that "these presents vary as to their nature, consisting either of jewels, plate [i.e. precious metal], tapestry, porcelain, and sometimes money." He also described Benjamin Franklins gifts to the French Introductor and his assistant, the latter receiving "a rouleau of fifty Louis dors," perhaps the earliest reference to a roll of coins yet discovered.Jefferson apparently wasted no time. The memorandum in the Jefferson papers entitled "Formula for American Presidents to Foreign Diplomats" appears to be the compiled notes Jefferson made after receiving William Temple Franklins letter, though the memorandum is undated. Jefferson wrote that "our present" should "consist of a gold medal of 30 lines, the metal in which will be worth about 150 dollars and a gold chain of about 850 doll[ars] value, supposing the minister to have stayed here 7 years." He may have shared the notes with Washington in some form, as Washington recorded in his diary on April 29, 1790, that he had "fixed with the Secretary of State on the present which (according to the custom of other Nations) should be made to Diplomatic characters when they return from that employment in this Country." Apparently inspired by the gift given to John Adams by The Netherlands, Washington recorded that "this was a gold Medal, suspended to a gold Chain -- in ordinary to be of the value of about 120 or 130 guineas." The enormous gold medal Adams received survives, preserved in the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society. It was further described by Washington as "a medal & chain of the value of, in common, 150 or 180 guineas the value of which to be increased by an additional weight in the chain when they wished to mark a distinguished character," echoing much of the language of Jeffersons memorandum. "The reason why a medal & chain was fixed upon for the American present," Washington wrote, "is, that the die being once made, the medals could at any time be struck at very little cost, & the chain made by our own artisans, which (while the first should be retained as a memento) might be converted into cash."The day after Washington journaled about his conversation on the subject of diplomatic gifts with his secretary of state, Jefferson filled his inkwell and wrote to both his charge daffaires in Paris, William Short, and the French ambassador, the Marquis de la Luzerne, to describe the planned medals. The idea was barely hatched, no engraver had been hired, and no gold had been acquired, yet Jefferson could not wait to describe his plan. His rush was ill-advised, however, as no medals would be struck for nearly two years.Jeffersons casual notes mention three potential recipients of these gold medals for diplomats, namely the Marquis de la Luzerne, the Comte de Moustier, and "Old Mr. Van Berkel" of The Netherlands. Though William Short later recorded receiving just two gold medals for distribution, Adams and Bentley (Comitia Americana and Related Medals, 2007) used Jeffersons early memo as evidence that three specimens were struck (one for each of the above named potential recipients). Presumably, given the careful penny-pinching nature of the United State government at this point, as well as the borderline obsessive bookkeeping of Jefferson, had more than two been struck in gold, there would be a financial paper trail. Adams and Bentley make a further assertion that there were potentially four gold medals struck, basing this on a May 1793 missive from Jefferson to Washington that included a draft of a letter from Jefferson to French ambassador Jean-Baptiste Ternant, to which was appended a version of the previously described Jefferson memorandum. The language of that appendix gave a ballpark idea of the potential weight of a medal for Ternant if one was to be struck, giving his length of service, in Jeffersons words, as "1 3/4 (say 2)," clearly a back-of-the-envelope style arithmetic intended to show Washington the potential costs involved. Alas, the paperwork that has survived from Jefferson, Washington, and William Short appears to indicate the sum total of two gold specimens of the Diplomatic Medal were struck, no more. The invoice William Short received on January 31, 1792 included charges for two "medailles dor" and the letter Short sent to Jefferson on February 8, 1792, noted plainly, "I had only two gold medals struck." Those two gold medals, given to the Frenchmen Luzerne and de Moustier, are untraced, almost certainly lost in the upheaval of the French Revolution.The same February 8 letter from Short to Jefferson also noted "the six of bronze will await your orders," the same six bronze medals that were listed on the January 31 invoice. Of those six, four appear to have survived, including this one. The French-American numismatist and geologist Jules Marcou reported that "Jacques E. Gatteaux, son of the distinguished engraver, exhibited to him two copies in bronze" in 1867, but both were destroyed, along with the rest of Gatteauxs collection, in the fires that engulfed Paris in May 1871. Marcou also saw a bronze specimen in the possession of Augustin Dupres son Narcisse; the Dupre specimen has not been specifically traced, but it may be the example that William Sumner Appleton later owned, as Appleton was instrumental in acquiring other materials from Dupre for the Boston Public Library, including drawings, white metal impressions called cliches, and even a set of original dies for the Diplomatic Medal.All four surviving specimens of the Diplomatic Medal are from the same die pair, representing the second obverse and the third reverse engraved by Augustin Dupre. The side with the Great Seal of the United States was termed the obverse by all characters involved in the medals initial production. Perhaps due to the preponderance of similar eagles on the reverses of United States coins, this has been a point of some confusion for American numismatists in more modern times. The first obverse cracked early on, and no impressions have survived, though the die itself is preserved in the Boston Public Library. The second obverse was used to produce all four bronze examples known, and it undoubtedly struck the two gold medals as well. Adams and Bentley record eight different uniface tin cliches from that obverse. The reverses were even more finicky, as the first attempt broke in hardening and yielded just a single tin impression, last offered in our (Stacks) Ford V sale of October 2004. The second reverse die, also in the collection of the Boston Public Library, is said to have cracked during its first use. William Shorts letter to Jefferson on November 21, 1791, reports that "the die for the diplomatic medal has again failed under the press. It resisted only so as to take the first impression in silver," a puzzling citation as no silver medals are recorded in any other document of the era, nor have any survived. The Adams and Bentley census lists six uniface tin survivors from this die. The third and final reverse is seen on the four surviving bronze specimens, as well as three tin uniface cliches.This is the only specimen that retains its original mount, described by Jefferson as "a loop on the edge to receive the chain." The Ford example, earlier from Garrett (1981), Bushnell (1882), and Colburn (1863), had an impressively deeply bored and threaded hole for a mount, but the mount itself was missing. The example sold in the October 1990 NASCA sale (at $18,400) and the ex Vermuele specimen now impounded at Princeton University have not been personally examined, but the owner of the NASCA specimen reports that its edge has not been bored. As this specimen lacks the scratches seen on the Ford medal and the rim bruise seen on Princetons, this piece may be the finest of the surviving specimens. It is, at a minimum, the only one that is complete.While other medals recall the earliest days of the American experiment, none are so rare as the Diplomatic Medal, and none were so central to Americas foreign policy. As Adams and Bentley point out, the cost of the medals and dies represented more than one-eighth of the Secretary of States entire budget for 1790-1791, showing that "the Diplomatic Medal was clearly of the highest importance to him." Only its rarity has kept it from the spotlight it deserves today. Missing from such important institutional holdings as the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution and the American Numismatic Society, this offering represents an extraordinary opportunity for those building both private and public collections.
