(1789) George Washington Inaugural Button. LONG LIVE THE PRESIDENT, Dotted Script GW. Cobb-10, WHB-11A, RAU-WI.9A, DeWitt-GW 1789-2. Brass with Original Shank. Choice Extremely Fine.35.3 mm. 152.3 grains. This is a beautiful example that originally surfaced with three others in 2010, all of which were auctioned individually as a private pedigreed suite. This may have been the finest of the four. Bright golden-yellow brass in color. The front with a slightly darker hue than the blank back, as expected. The central large GW in large dotted script letters in the center, inscription LONG LIVE THE PRESIDENT in large raised block-style letters around the border, with a small six-pointed star encircled by 10 dots at the bottom. Magnificent quality for one of these, having exceptional overall eye appeal. This essential type was included in our (Stacks) historic offering of the Cobb Collection, in January 2003. Cobbs own, lot 1344, was graded About Uncirculated and sold for an impressive $19,550, which as far as we know still stands as the record price for the variety.The remarkable quality of the four George Washington Inaugural buttons, sold individually in the September 2010 Early American History Auctions sale, appears to be due to having been preserved in one family for a long time. This discovery group came to EAHA after the consignor watched an episode of the History Channel television show Pawn Stars, in which EAHAs specialist made an appearance to help attribute several other George Washington button types featured on that episode. With that encouragement, the owner agreed to consign the fresh and out of the woodwork group of four buttons to EAHA for public auction. It was their first auction appearance.To confirm the complete authenticity and originality of those four buttons, all were reviewed in person by noted numismatist and Americana expert Anthony Terranova as a consultant to EAHA. All four examples from this handsome suite entered new collections and we believe this is the first example to re-appear at auction since their original sale. Heritage Auctions recently sold a similar example for $11,250 which was toned and clearly inferior to this example. Washington Inaugural buttons of this caliber rarely appear and they touch the very history of our Founding Fathers.
