1800 Hero of Freedom Medal. Musante GW-81, Baker-79BA. Copper. MS-62 BN (NGC). 38.3 mm. 424.0 grains. Uniformly dark chocolate-brown surfaces on both sides. The reverse is smooth and prooflike, with what appears to be considerable reflectivity beneath a layer of natural oil. The obverse exhibits shallow granularity in places, giving it a somewhat more matte appearance. Struck over a 1797 British penny, with evidence of the undertype visible in several places, most notably the D of D:G and the E of REX are seen on the right obverse, near the D of DEC and AE, respectively. When we sold this as part of the Norweb Collection in November 2006, it was still believed that such overstrikes were very rare variants. More recent observations have led the writer to believe that most if not all of these were on such hosts. Most with obvious undertypes visible are boldly struck, as here, with excellent definition through Washingtons hair strands, an area sometimes quite weak. A scarce and popular memorial medal struck very shortly after Washingtons death in December, 1799. Though we have had an unusually flurry of appearances in recent sales from a collection that included several, these are quite scarce and the provenance of this one to one of the great American collections sets it a bit apart from many. From our (Stacks) sale of the Norweb Collection, November 2006, lot 2080; our sale of August 2016, lot 1044.
