Undated (ca. 1776-1812) George III Indian Peace Medal. Small Size. Solid Silver. 38.2 mm. 20.2 grams. Adams-9. Repurposed as an Educational Award Medal. Choice Extremely Fine.An astonishing medal, inasmuch as the original medal from which this school medal was made is an extremely rare Indian Peace medal of George III, known by only two confirmed specimens in the small size, one in the Glenbow Museum, and one that was lot 53 in the October 2006 auctions of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, Part XVI, and brought $18,400. This attribution is confirmed not only by the presence of the same exact obverse die as used on the undated small size George III medals (though in a later die state than either the Glenbow or Ford specimens), but also by the hanger that is in the exact style of those medals. If a medal with blank reverse were created for use as a school medal, we doubt that a hanger of exact same style would have been used in 1823, decades, and as much as 60 or more years, after these medals had been original produced for use in North America as Indian Peace medals. The reverse of the original medal, which originally would have carried the Royal Arms, has been expertly planed off, and in its place is engraved WALBROOK SCHOOL / RACHEL CROOK / AGED 13 YEARS / REWARD OF / MERIT / 1823, the final 3 in the date showing signs of having originally been a 2.Rewards of merit like this are not an uncommon occurrence in England in the late 18th and 19th centuries. What is rare is the use of an extremely rare Indian Peace medal as the host for the school medal. The persistence of these undated George III Indian Peace medals is not unheard of, and John Adams documents two occurrences on page 80 of his reference on the Indian Peace medals of George III: one was a large size Indian Peace medal that the Hudson Bay Company got from surplus inventory at the Colonial Office to use at the signing of Lord Selkirks Treaty in 1817, and the other the use of an undated Indian Peace medal of George III that King George IV had engraved as a special award for a Chippewa chief in 1832. Whether the latter was from surplus inventory or specially struck as a diplomatic gift is not clear. Also not clear is how this small size Indian Peace medal came to be a school medal. We doubt that that the Colonial Office or the Royal Mint would have provided a surplus or specially restruck medal for use by the Walbrook School, one that does not appear to exist any longer but which was probably located in the Walbrook, one of the 25 wards of London. More likely is that this medal was brought back from a stint in North America by a British Army soldier, and was repurposed decades later as a special gift to a special student at the school. Attractive, lovely pearl gray patina and abundant hints of multicolored iridescence on both sides. Here is a medal that begs further research and that will likely find a deserving home in an advanced collection of Indian Peace medals or outstanding School medals.From the T.H. Watts Collection of Educational Award Medals.