1814 George III Indian Peace Medal. Silver. Medium Size. Adams 13.1. (Obverse 1, Reverse A). Adams Census Specimen-13. About Uncirculated. 59.9 mm. 1121.9 grains. Original hanger. Obverse die signed T. WYON JUN:S. Obv: older mantled bust of George III, right. Rev: the royal arms and supporters, date below. A really exceptional specimen of this scarce medal. Mostly brilliant silver with soft accents of lavender, blue-green and rose in the deeply prooflike fields. Satiny and lustrous on the devices with just a few tiny marks scattered about and a very thin hairline scratch in the field to the lower right of George’s chin. Lightly hairlined in the fragile fields. Superb sharpness throughout, with crisply defined rims and exceptional eye appeal. This piece came out of England in 1997, and though we do not know its prior history, it was likely a collector’s piece and not awarded. However, medals of this type were indeed produced for distribution toward the end of the War of 1812 to Native Americans who remained loyal to the Crown through the conflict. When we last offered this piece in our August 2012 sale, we noted that it was nicer than the best example of John Ford’s three specimens. A survey of the 17 medals listed by John Adams in his 1999 Census suggests that this was the finest specimen known to him at that time. It is most certainly among the very top specimens and may well be the finest known. In the Adams text this piece was described as Extremely Fine, and in our past offerings we called it Choice Extremely Fine. Those assessments were in line with the old-style conservative European style of grading that we applied to medals for many years. Here, we have upped the grade a bit to better reflect how the American market assesses condition, and it is probably still a bit conservative. Indeed, this has all the eye appeal of an Uncirculated medal, yet just a trace of friction. The Adams plate piece. Ex Baldwin’s, October 1997, lot 106; John W. Adams Collection, Stack’s, January 2009, lot 5043; Stack’s Bowers Galleries, August 2012, lot 11127.
