"1799" (ca. 1832) Birth Centennial Medal. By Wright and Bale. Original

"1799" (ca. 1832) Birth Centennial Medal. By Wright and Bale. Original Reverse. Musante GW-127A, Baker-74A. White Metal. Specimen-62 (PCGS). 44.8 mm. An incredible specimen of this very rare variety and one of the nicest we have ever seen. In fact, it is one of the very few we have ever seen. Only two white metal impressions from these dies exist in our online archives, one of which represents an earlier offering of the specimen featured here. We can't find a single example in the major collections of Washington medals we sold in earlier decades except for in the Gil Steinberg sale, where one was unplated and lotted with two other medals. We did note one misidentified as this early variant and wonder if the Steinberg entry was another such error. The collections without one include Stanley Scott, Garrett, Stewart Witham, David Dreyfuss, Jack Collins, the Fairfax Collection, Lucien LaRiviere, Western Reserve Historical Society, John J. Ford, Jr., the Patriot Collection, Norweb, and Charles Wharton. This is undeniably an extraordinary list of cabinets to be missing this medal. It is as attractive as it is rare. Bold prooflike fields accentuate the sharp satiny devices. Mostly brilliant with a small area of dark mottling behind Washington's head and at the base of the bust. A little hairlined in the fragile fields, but no marks worthy of mention are seen. Heavy filing on the reverse rim may have been done by the maker and thus part of the finishing. Either way, it is forgivable on a medal like this. In our November 2019 sale of the William Spohn Baker Collection we elected to make a small adjustment in the ordering of this series (breaking slightly with the order established in Musante) by placing the GW-127A medals before GW-127. That order is the proper and somewhat surprising sequence of striking for these medals. This white metal specimen is the earliest die state among the three we had available for study in 2019, and it bears the crack in the reverse die that likely eventually necessitated its replacement. The tiny break may be seen on the lower right oak leaf, the second upward from the bow. At the tip of the leaf, there is a small piece out of the die that connects to the rim, and extends in a fine crack across it. It extends in the opposite direction through the middle leaf of that group and terminates at the inner leaf. A thin branch crack arcs from the small lump upward to the acorn above. Provenance: Ex William Spohn Baker Collection, to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by bequest, November 15, 1897; our sale of Washingtoniana from the Collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania featuring the Collection of William Spohn Baker, November 2019 Baltimore Auction, lot 20099, where it realized $3,840. Click here for certification details from PCGS. Image with the PCGS TrueView logo is obtained from and is subject to a license agreement with Collectors Universe, Inc. and its divisions PCGS and PSA.

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