1873 Washington Before Boston medal. First Philadelphia Mint issue. Gunmetal Dies. Musante GW-09-US1, Baker-Unlisted in this composition. Plain edge. Silver. Choice Mint State. <p>67.9 mm, 1771.7 grains. A lovely medal with light pearlescent silver gray surfaces generously accented by rich gold, pale blue, rose and soft green toning mottled across both sides. The obverse is ever so slightly prooflike in the fields, while most of the surface is satiny with soft luster. A few faint hairlines can be detected on the reverse, but this is a beautifully preserved medal and one could not ask for finer eye appeal. As far as we are aware, this is the only known example to have been struck in silver from these dies. According to Robert Julian’s study of U.S. Mint records, it was struck in 1873 which gives us a dating point with respect to die state. Of the three gunmetal dies pieces in this collection, this is the second die state represented, just slightly advanced beyond the state of the bronze offered above. The crumbling within the reverse rim is slightly more advanced, with a notable lump left of the upper cannon base, and slightly more advanced chipping inside the rim just right of the second S of HOSTIBUS. It is also one of the very few specimens of this medal (of any issue, whether Paris Mint or U.S. Mint) that can be dated so precisely. <p>From the Collection of Marc McDonald. Earlier ex Gilbert Steinberg, Stack’s, May 1992, lot 8; John W. Adams Collection, via John Kraljevich, circa 2013.<strong><p></strong>
