1867 Libertas Americana / J.A. Bolen Store Card. Musante JAB-30, Rulau Ma-Sp 41. Silver. Marked "B SILVER ONLY ONE STRUCK" on Edge. MS-64 (PCGS).25.4 mm. 183.7 grains. Soft gray-silver on the motifs and rims, while the fields are gently toned pleasing pale blue. A few light hairlines in the fields, but beautifully struck on a medium-thick flan and quite pretty. As with other Bolen reference collection pieces, this is marked on the edge as noted above, identifying it as unique. Johnson, in 1882, gave the mintage in silver as one, and it is said that he had worked, at least in part, from Bolens personal reference set. That would mean his entry came directly from the edge of this medal. Which, as an aside, is notable for an error. Interestingly, the "K" punch in STRUCK was applied with a 90-degree rotation, which supports the assertion by Musante that Bolens vision was somewhat failed.<p>Returning to mintage figures, the 1868 AJN listing gave the mintage as three in silver. This was within a year of the cutting of the dies and taken from information supplied directly by Bolen and Major C.P. Nichols, who cooperated in getting the data to the ANS for publication. It seems unlikely that the error would be in that listing, but there is always room for error so it cant be discounted. This said, Musante had found no auction appearances of a silver medal from these dies, and we have none in our online archives, so there is evidence to suggest that this one is, in fact, unique in this composition. In either case, it is certainly unique for its edge markings, as Bolens personal specimen.<p>Musante mentions that Bolen referred to this piece as a mule in his 1905 listing and suggests that it was an effort to make his list different from Johnsons. However, even though this piece is given a regular number in the AJN listing, Major Nichols circa 1868 annotations to Bolens own notebook include mention that this pairing is actually a muling, so Johnson was probably just incorrect and based his listing on the earlier one in the AJN. It is curious that, with the muling note in the notebook, this piece was still assigned a number in the AJN listings. Since the obverse was cut for a standard 1867 store card, it seems clear by design and usage alone that it is technically a muling.From the Martin Logies Collection. Earlier ex personal reference collection of John Adams Bolen; our sale of the E Pluribus Unum Collection, Part III, November 2021 Baltimore Auction, lot 10230.
