Circa 1881 George Washington / Chester Arthur medal. Musante-Unlisted, Baker-Unlisted. Bronze. MS-64 BN (NGC).26.0 mm. Medium brown with traces of soft blue, green and gold iridescence in the prooflike fields. Satiny and sharp on the devices with only a few minor surface marks, though a couple of tiny rim nicks are noted. Apparently a very rare medal, perhaps even unique, as it was unknown to Baker, Rulau and Fuld, and Musante. If it has ever been published anywhere, we are unaware of it. According to Neil Musante, it is also missing from the holdings at the ANS, Smithsonian and Massachusetts Historical Society Collections. The Washington bust is very similar to that by William Barber, as seen on the 1876 Assay Commission medals, but not identical in the finer details. however, the Arthur portrait is virtually identical to that used on the 1884 Assay Commission medals. It might, in fact, be a mint medal. We have tentatively dated it to around 1881, when Arthur became President, but it could also be a memorial piece struck after his death in 1886 (or from any point in between). Extremely rare, in any case.
