1860 U.S. Mint Cabinet Medal. Silver. 60 mm. Musante GW-241, Baker-326, Julian MT-23. Specimen-63 (PCGS).A richly original, aesthetically pleasing example of this highly elusive type. Toned in dominant steely-charcoal patina, both sides also reveal olive-copper and, at direct lighting angles, reddish-gold and blue-gray highlights. Boldly defined throughout, even over the central high points, wispy handling marks in the fields and a few minor edge nicks are mentioned solely for accuracy.<p>This is a very rare type in silver, with a reported mintage of 122 pieces (versus 201 for the bronze impressions), but despite the mintage records, in todays market bronze examples easily outnumber the seldom seen silver pieces 10 to one. Rulau lists silver examples as Rarity-8, and Musante designates it as VS (i.e., Very Scarce). We offered a slightly worn, pleasantly toned specimen in our (Stacks) September 2006 sale that realized $2,530, while a nice Mint State piece brought $3,737.50 in our (Stacks) September 2010 Americana Sale. In our February 2015 Americana Sale, a Mint State specimen with a very distracting test mark in the obverse field brought $1,115.25, while a Choice About Uncirculated example netted $1,645 in our March 2017 Baltimore Auction. Notably, none were present in our various Ford sales.From the Ralph A. Edson Collection.
