1805 Eccleston Medal. Musante GW-88, Baker-85. Copper. SP-62 BN (PCGS). 76.0 mm. 2074.6 grains. Lovely light chocolate brown surfaces with thin outlines of orange red around Washington’s portrait and close to the obverse rim, while the reverse exhibits considerably more red in the more protected areas of the field. Glossy, sharply struck and very attractive. Some very light roughness from the cast planchet is seen at the central reverse, as usual, but it is very light on this medal. Four small voids in the edge were thought by Syd Martin to be mounting marks, but these are almost certainly natural flaws in the planchet, just unfortunately juxtaposed to make them appear otherwise. A lovely example of this large, impressive and early medal. When Edward Cogan’s 1869 sale of the Mortimer MacKenzie Collection appeared in collector’s hands, readers were treated to the first plated numismatic auction catalog in the United States. The first plate included five medals, all Washington pieces, with an Eccleston medal strikingly at the immediate center. From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Noted to have been found in South Africa.
