1853 New York Crystal Palace medal by Alexander C. Morin and Anthony Paquet. Musante GW-191, Baker-361A. Copper, Bronzed. SP-65 (PCGS).51.5 mm. Deep chocolate bronze on both sides. The obverse high points are a bit more light olive in tone, with a similar color gently mottled through the fields. The reverse is fairly consistent brown. Both sides are glossy and beautifully preserved, with soft reflectivity in the fields and sharp satiny devices. Some minor handling and faint hairlines are noted under magnification, but the quality and eye appeal are very nice. Very faint traces of strike doubling are noted on the obverse, while at least three impressions are detected on the reverse. This is to be expected for a medal of this size and thickness, which would naturally require an extra degree of care to fully execute the intricacies of the design.<p>This medal is truly rare in all compositions, although silver examples are very rare and considered the most prized. Our electronic archives include only three examples in bronze over the past 15 years (and a lone example in white metal). The last bronze example brought just over $3,100 in October 2018. Though it was pleasant and highly graded, many would find the eye appeal of this specimen to be superior, and certainly, the provenance is virtually unparalleled for a Washington medal.<p>Reported in 1864 to be one of 35 struck, but as noted above, in our description of the silver example, we suspect that this number likely included medals of all three compositions, as the rarity today does not support the original distribution of more than 100 Crystal Palace medalsEx William Spohn Baker Collection, to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by bequest, November 15, 1897
