1854 Merchants and Citizens of New York Medal for the Rescue of the S.S. San Francisco. Dies by C.C. SBP2021年6月加州#1-美国钱币_首席收藏网

拍品分类：世界钱币

拍品估价： USD 15000

拍品专场： SBP2021年6月加州#1-美国钱币

开拍日期： 2021-06-11 06:00:00

结标日期： 2021-06-11 11:00:00

拍品品相：无

成交价格： USD 13200

拍卖公司： SBP

拍卖状态：成交

拍品描述： 1854 Merchants and Citizens of New York Medal for the Rescue of the S.S. San Francisco. Dies by C.C. Wright, struck and assembled by Ball, Black, & Co., New York. Silver. Choice About Uncirculated. 45.5 mm. 756.1 grains. Housed in an original applied rope bezel and loop with anchor decoration, as made. Awarded to Robinson Miller of the Lucy Thompson. Engraved on the reverse in multiple lines: PRESENTED TO ROBINSON MILLER, A SEAMAN ATTACHED TO THE AMER: SHIP "LUCY THOMPSON," BY THE MERCHANTS AND CITIZENS OF NEW YORK AS A TESTIMONIAL OF THEIR DEEP SENSE OF HIS HUMANE AND COURAGEOUS CONDUCT IN ASSISTING TO RESCUE THE PASS-ENGERS, OFFICERS, & CREW OF THE STEAMER SAN FRANCISCO IN THEIR PERILOUS EXPOSURE ON THE OCEAN, AFTER THE DESTRUCTIVE GALE OF THE 24 DECEMBER, 1853.This medal retains prooflike surface on both sides and is lustrous and attractive, with prominent blue and violet toning atop the obverse and around the periphery on the reverse. Some light marks and trivial hairlines are seen on the reverse, where this medal would have come into contact with the recipients clothing, but the obverse design is crisp and barely worn. Charles Cushing Wrights die shows high enough relief to require double striking (two blows of the coining press), evidence of which is seen around much of the legends. In the foreground, the steamer San Francisco is seen amidst heavy seas, while dinghies ferry survivors to two schooners, representing the Antarctic and the Three Bells, in the background. The San Franciscos flag flies upside down, the classic signal for a seemingly doomed ship. The finely fashioned bezel perfectly frames the medal, which was struck with heavy diagonal denticles inside the rim on both sides to lend a double-framed appearance. A die crack within the denticles is seen at the right side of the reverse; smaller breaks are present within the reverse denticles near 6 oclock and 8 oclock.The maiden voyage of the steamer San Francisco began on December 21, 1853, leaving New York City for the long journey, via the Straits of Magellan, to San Francisco. The San Francisco was operated by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, the dominant player in New York to San Francisco seagoing transport at that time, mostly with two ships connecting passengers and cargo via river and land travel 48 miles across the Isthmus of Panama (in 1855 the Panama Railroad would open and would make the transit routine). The construction of the San Francisco hit New York papers in July 1853 and San Francisco papers a month later. The Daily Alta California noted on August 12, 1853: "The San Francisco, when completed, will be the finest steamship on the Pacific." Unfortunately, just two days out of New York, a piston rod on the steam engines air pump broke, leaving the sidewheel steamer helpless among heavy seas east of the Carolinas. On December 24, a single wave was said by survivors to have taken 150 people overboard. Three ships arrived within a few days, the Kilby, the Three Bells, and the Antarctic, and each took on some of the San Franciscos passengers. The Kilby was unable to handle the heavy seas and extra burden, and her passengers were rescued by the Lucy Thompson, on which the recipient of this medal served.The maritime disaster made international news. Over 300 people were killed, either lost at sea or felled by the outbreak of cholera that occurred below decks as the San Francisco floated aimlessly, waiting for help. Eight companies of soldiers from the Third United States Infantry were aboard the San Francisco, and the misbehavior of many of the troops was blamed for spreading the cholera. Hundreds of troops were evacuated, while others died. A court martial, overseen by General Winfield Scott and Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, was called to inquire into their leadership in the wake of the disaster. Survivors ended up in New York, Boston, and Liverpool, most far from home, all far from their planned destination on the Pacific.In the aftermath of the San Franciscos loss at sea, the captains of the ships that came to her aid were lauded as heroes. Congress voted gold medals to the captains of the Kilby, Three Bells, and Antarctic, a medal cataloged by Julian as LS-11. The city of Philadelphia also authorized gold medals for the captains, now known as Julian LS-12. The Humane Society of Massachusetts presented medals to officers of all three ships. The city of New York also authorized medals for the heroes of the day, including the officers and seamen of the Lucy Thompson, the first ship to return survivors back to New York City.Carl Carlson found records of just five examples of this medal that reached collector hands. Two of them, including this one, were included in the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection. One, presented to William McDonald of the Lucy Thompson, was offered in our October 2004 presentation of Fords collection of life saving medals. First offered in the October 1864 W. Elliot Woodward sale and acquired from the March 1981 Garrett IV auction by Ford, it brought $17,250 in 2004. Fords second specimen, the medal here offered, was sold with his collection of Western Americana, bringing $25,300 in October 2007. One of the few other specimens offered in modern times was sold in the June 1999 Andrew Zabriskie sale by Sothebys as lot 556, offered after a century off the market with a fine provenance that included the February 1859 Augustus B. Sage sale and the legendary 1882 sale of the Charles I. Bushnell Collection. The only other two specimens traced by Carl Carlson were the example awarded to James Taylor of the Three Bells, first offered in January 1863 and last seen in the January 1890 Robert Coulton Davis Collection sale, and an unnamed example in Edward Cogans sale of October 1878. Though it has been posited that the unnamed example is the white metal trial we sold in our November 2014 sale (lot 10093), the revelation of an unnamed silver example that sold as lot 12080 in our March 2016 Baltimore Auction could suggest otherwise. However, that piece was recently discovered in a Nashua, New Hampshire estate by an antique dealer seemingly without a numismatic context that might be suggested by appearance in a coin sale in 1878. As such, we suspect that is likely a new example which, if true, would bring the census of known examples to six.Connected to one of the great nautical disasters of the 19th century, this medal is of interest to specialists in naval and life saving medals, California Gold Rush history, and the medallic works of the great C.C. Wright, who died in June 1854. Generations of collectors have come and gone without even a single specimen being offered through public auction. The Garrett and Zabriskie specimens, two of the five known, spent over a century in each of those cabinets; another has not been seen since 1890. Fortunate is any collector who gets to see a specimen of this rarity, let alone own one.Michael Hodder described the events surrounding the loss of the steamer San Francisco in these words in our (Stacks) October 2004 catalog of Part V of the John Ford Collection, where we offered an awarded and inscribed silver example of this medal:"The wreck of the Aspinwall line steamer San Francisco caught the publics attention as no other American disaster at sea ever had before. She was a brand new vessel sailing the familiar Atlantic leg of the voyage to the fabled California gold fields. Her captain, J.T. Watkins, was experienced and her crew included men who would later win medals for their attempts to assist stricken passengers. She sailed under a federal charter to carry eight companies of the 3rd Regiment of Artillery on their way west. There was nothing about the San Francisco that would lead an observer to imagine her maiden voyage would end in tragedy except the fact that she appeared heavily laden when she left New York harbor. It later emerged that she was loaded past her limit and that part of her passenger space was crammed with coal. There were 498 artillerymen, their 16 officers, and with their wives, children and the ships company there were in all 750 souls aboard the ill-fated vessel. Three hundred of them were housed on the main deck for lack of space, below."The San Francisco left New York on December 21, 1853, sailing into good weather and calm seas. The weather held for the next two days but the ships impending fate was announced by the discovery of fever among the overcrowded servicemen below decks. No sooner had disease spread to the passengers than the fair weather the ill-fated ship had enjoyed until then declined into a howling gale. Two days after leaving New York, the San Franciscos lifeboats were washed away, her upper saloon and promenade decks were pounded to splinters by the crashing waves and her engines were drowned. Soon afterwards, she lost her masts and both funnels and was tossed about helpless amid the high waves, her fate and the lives of her passengers and crew uncertain. One hundred and sixty of her passengers were swept overboard when the upper saloon was smashed."The San Francisco was sighted by the Maria Freeman on December 26, which recorded that the stricken vessels decks had been swept bare and she was clearly helpless in the water. Two days later, the Kilby was able to lay alongside and take off about 100 passengers, who were transferred to the downeaster Lucy Thompson and taken to New York. After a further two days of aimless drifting the San Francisco was raised by the Three Bells but because the seas were too threatening the master of the Three Bells was forced to stand by until January 3. In concert with the Antarctic, which had arrived to help, the Three Bells and her aide then began taking the passengers and crew off the San Francisco. The Three Bells rescued nearly 200 souls and carried them back to New York, arriving there on January 13. The Antarctic took off 176 (192 by another account) and sailed them to Liverpool. The helpless San Francisco soon sank. Nearly 20 per cent of the 300 passengers and crewmen who died in the disaster were lost to cholera."The public responded to the disaster by authorizing various medals for bravery to the rescuers of the stricken San Francisco. The U.S. Mint issued LS.11, the congressional medal in gold, to the three captains of the rescue ships, Creighton of the Three Bells out of Glasgow, Low of the barque Kilby out of Boston, and Stouffer of the Antarctic out of Liverpool; and LS.12 in gold, the medal authorized by the city of Philadelphia to the three heroes. The three captains received a subsidy of $7,500 each from the nation. Mates received $500 and each seaman and boy $100. The Humane Society of Massachusetts also issued medals to the rescuers, as well as to members of the San Franciscos crew who distinguished themselves in the course of the disaster. The merchants and citizens of New York City also issued medals, [of the style offered here,] to the rescuers aboard the Lucy Thompson which brought the first of the survivors to New York. The lifesaving medals for the wreck of the San Francisco are among the most highly prized of all such rarities." Ex Isaac F. Wood; Edward Cogans sale of the Isaac F. Wood Collection, May 1873, lot 1399; unknown intermediaries; Jim Halpin fixed price list, 1985, lot 3000; Joe Levine (Presidential Coin and Antique, Inc.) to John J. Ford, Jr.; our (Stacks) sale of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, Part XX, October 2007, lot 3282; our Rarities Sale of February 2016, lot 65. Collector envelope with provenance notes included.

Lot:1056 1854 Merchants and Citizens of New York Medal for the Rescue of the S.S. San Francisco. Dies by C.C.