Circa 1816 Halliday medal. Musante GW-57, Baker-70. White Metal. Ornamented rims. SP-63 (PCGS).54.0 mm. 831.9 grains. Another outstanding Halliday medal, this being the much rarer white metal variant, featuring not only superb quality but strongly ornamented rims that give this piece exceptional eye appeal. The surfaces are strongly reflective though they are slightly more subdued on the obverse, the apparent “heads up” side in Baker’s cabinet where it sat for the better part of a century. The reverse is brighter and with fewer light hairlines. Both sides exhibit a few tiny black flecks and there are gentle fingerprints in the upper left obverse and reverse fields, noted for accuracy. The devices are crisp and frosty in texture, forming a pleasant contrast to the fields. As noted, the rims are sharply ornamented, beautifully framing the entirety of the designs.<p>Thomas Halliday’s Washington medal is known in silver, bronze and white metal, as well as in some unusual formats such as at least one in white porcelain and a uniface one in gutta-percha. The bronze and white metal examples come with either plain or ornamented rims, the latter frequently referred to as “engine turned” rims. Bronzes with this feature exhibit fine and tight radial lines around the rims on both sides. White metal specimens we have seen have a significantly coarser treatment. The last nice one we handled (2008), called Choice Extremely Fine, had a tight crosshatched pattern on the rims. Ford’s seems to have been the same, though the plate leaves this uncertain. This example has a distinctive chevron pattern that we have seen on one other low grade example. In all cases, these treatments are different than seen on the bronze examples, which seems to be consistent.<p> Our survey of Halliday’s other works revealed a useful detail relating to this ornamentation. None of the examples of his work we have seen from the second decade of the 19th century (his early period) had ornamented rims, while a few of his works from the 1830s do have such treatment. There is no clear break as to date of issue when the ornamentation element appeared, however. We noted an 1831 medal with it, and 1832-dated medals both with and without it. Still, as none of the early medals were seen with ornamented rims, it stands to reason that Halliday’s Washington medals bearing this feature are likely later impressions from the 1830s, though there are no clear indications of a later die state on the ornamented rim examples we have seen.Ex Charles I. Bushnell, S.H. and H. Chapman, June 1882, lot 1294; William Spohn Baker Collection, to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by bequest, November 15, 1897.
