1825 John Quincy Adams Inaugural Medal. White Metal. 50 mm. Julian PR-5, DeWitt-JQA 1824-1. MS-61 (PCGS). This handsome piece exhibits light olive highlights to otherwise pearl gray surfaces. Luster is brightest in the protected areas around the design elements, the surfaces uncommonly smooth in hand for the assigned grade with only a few wispy handling marks in the left and right obverse field areas. Sharply struck and visually appealing. Dies by Moritz Furst, his mark on Adams truncation and on the reverse exergual line. Though unconfirmed as a Mint product, it seems highly probable since Furst wrote that the medals were struck in Philadelphia, he was a friend of Chief Coiner Adam Eckfeldt, and his dies for the 1821 James Monroe medal turned up in storage at the Mint, guaranteeing that their friendship included professional ventures. He further wrote that 100 of these medals had been struck, as of February 1827, and sent to the War Department. As Julian wrote, it is unknown what the War Department did with them, but the documentation is interesting nonetheless.It seems that Adams commissioned these medals himself, electing a talented engraver in Furst, who had put his efforts into the magnificent War of 1812 medals of the U.S. Mint. Adams was to receive the 10 best silver impressions but disparaged Furst in his interminable diary, "The man is pinchingly poor, both in purse and as an artist...this person is a wretched medalist and a half-witted man, but a tireless petitioner..." This because Furst asked Adams for leads in selling the Inaugural medals. However that may be, the Adams Inaugural medals are classics of their extensively collected specialty and the present example is among the finest that we have ever had the privilege of bringing to auction.
