1860 U.S. Mint Cabinet Medal. Silver. 60 mm. Musante GW-241, Baker-326, Julian MT-23. Mint State.Here is a simply outstanding example of the type, with both sides beautifully toned with iridescent blue, steel-olive and pinkish-gold on pearl gray surfaces. Reflective fields support frosty devices and peripheries, and the strike full with only minimal high point rub and wispy handling marks. This is a very rare type in silver, with a reported mintage of 122 pieces (versus 201 for the bronze impressions). 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. More recently, a PCGS-certified Specimen-63 realized $2,040 in our October 2018 Baltimore Auction. Notably, none were present in our various Ford sales.From the Q. David Bowers Collection. Earlier from our (Bowers and Merenas) Phillip Flannagan Collection sale, November-December 2001, lot 5379. Lot tag and collector tag with attribution and provenance notes included.
