Circa 1856 Eight Presidents / Buck-Cannon and Breckenridge muling. Musante GW-157, Baker-381, Dewitt-JB 1856-3. Copper. SP-61 BN (PCGS).46.2 mm. 701.5 grains. Hairlines and remnants of faded orange in the fields from an old cleaning, but the surfaces have considerably toned back over the obviously long period of time that has passed since. Light reddish brown and steel are seen on most of the motifs. Imperfect, but not terribly so, and still a very rare and desirable Buchanan rebus medal variant. In fact, this might be the rarest variant in the series as we can locate only a single example in our auction archives. It was a finer example than this one, but sold for a shocking $9,400 in our September 2013 Ford sale. This suggested a degree of desirability greater than the other varieties from this series that had earlier been sold from the Ford holdings. It brought multiples of any other related piece, and certainly multiples of our presale expectation.Ex William Spohn Baker Collection, to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by bequest, November 15, 1897.
