Silver 1876 Centennial Exhibition Medal 4 Inches - Rare

Until now, just one example of the original 4 inch 1876 Centennial exhibition medal was known. It was sold at stacks in January 2010 for $11,500 + commision, uncirculated in its original case.

It is thought that 27 4 inch silver medals were struck, however as of 2010 only one was known to exist; as far as I can tell, this is only the second piece with no others having since some to light.

This exceptional rarity was awared to Sir P Cunliffe Owen, an Englishman who was envolved in practically every major exhibition in the mid - late 19th century, organising Many british exhibitions and serving as a juror or judge in many others worldwide. He would therefore be a prime candidate to have received one of these silver presentation medals.

The piece was bought at an auction of Sir Cunliffes many medals, I was fortunate enough to buy several other examples. They were sold at a non specialist British auction house, so I was fortunate to be able to purchase this exceptional rarity for a reasonable price. Along with the piece also came a uniface die trial type piece, for the discontinued 4 inch medal type. This too I imagine would be very rare, I have found no records of anything similar and may well be unique. Even the copper issues of the 4 inch medal, only 123 were recorded compared to around 12,000 examples of the 3 inch version that was eventually decided upon and awarded to recipients at the exhibition.

I've attached some pictures below - taken hastily in bad light, the hairlines are not as bad as they appear in the photo, I will add more later. The piece has not stayed in its original case and has been cleaned - other than that is in decent overall condition. I hope any collectors of American medals will enjoy having a look at this rare piece. I'll take some professional photos of it before passing it on for resale shortly.

Any comments welcome!


The main silver piece





The uniface trial piece