1860 U.S. Mint Cabinet Medal. Musante GW-241, Baker-326, Julian MT-23.

1860 U.S. Mint Cabinet Medal. Musante GW-241, Baker-326, Julian MT-23. Silver. MS-60 PL (NGC). 59.0 mm. 97.5 grams. Beautiful fully reflective pearl gray fields on both sides with far fewer contact marks, rim nicks and abrasions than typically found on these large medals. The strike is sharp and fully defined overall, with even the details of the medals in the case below Washington's bust fully expressed. Just a slight touch of cabinet friction on the highest locks of Washington's hair keeps this medal from a Mint State designation. This is a very rare type in silver, with a reported mintage of 122 pieces (versus 201 for the bronze impressions), but despite the mintage records, in today's market bronze examples easily outnumber the seldom seen silver pieces 10 to one. Rulau lists silver examples as Rarity-8, and Musante designates it as VS (i.e., Very Scarce). We offered a slightly worn, pleasantly toned specimen in our (Stack's) September 2006 sale that realized $2,530, while a nice Mint State piece brought $3,737.50 in our (Stack's) September 2010 Americana Sale. In our February 2015 Americana Sale, a Mint State specimen with a very distracting test mark in the obverse field brought $1,115.25. More recently, our May 2019 sale of the Q. David Bowers Collection resulted in $1,800 paid for an attractively toned Mint State example. Notably, none were present in our various Ford sales. Provenance: From the Henry Mitchell Collection. Earlier from our (Bowers and Ruddy's) January 1983 sale of the Roy Harte Collection, Part III, lot 3532; our Baltimore Auction of March 2017, lot 65. Click here for certification details from NGC.

Estimate:$1

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