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Found this in a dark, old cabinet at the Library Company of Philadelphia. Franklin's Company was already more than 50 years old when its 5th Street home was built in 1789. The Victorians who took the building down a century later mounted the contents of the cornerstone into this oak display: three fine pieces of exonumia, and five of the coppers in circulation at the time (the frugal Philadelphia Quakers presumably wouldn't part with their silver). In case future generations couldn't be bothered to read the date on the cornerstone, the Library Company proprietors kindly stamped a "1789" into each coin. Included are the coppers of Connecticut and New Jersey, a Nova Constellatio, a Massachusetts cent, and a halfpenny of the kingdom that had just conceded America's independence six years earlier. Was there any more numismatically momentous time in American history? The ratification of the Constitution had only just silenced the coin presses of the State mints, but it would be another three years before the US Mint would start making the Federal coinage, just a few blocks away. Notably absent is any Fugio copper; as the Congress that commissioned their production sat in Philadelphia, the scandal of the whole mess was probably too fresh in everyone's minds. Sorry the pic and the 1888 mounting don't give us a better look. Maybe it's time for a new display anyway: there were absolutely no 1788 Connecticut coppers with that style of obverse. I'm pretty sure it's a Miller 6.3 (corrections welcome), which means they misread a date of 1785!  Edited by philadelphian
02/21/2015 10:19 pm
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That is very cool p!
Maybe it's the picture or that I'm on mobile.
I'd like confirmation of that M.6.3
I just can't make out really anything.
swcoin.ecrater.com
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Looking at the middle row coin on far left "Bronze Medal of Washington" I am impressed that it appears to be a Voltaire Medal which is right for being entombed in 1789. This would be Baker-78B, 41 mm, plain edge, bronze. The obverse shows an imaginary bust of Washington, head right, looking something like a Roman senator, "reportedly struck in Paris by order of Voltaire, per the journal and letters of Samuel Curwen, an American in England, 1775 - 1783; entry of April 20, 1778." This is said to be the earliest medal struck for Washington, from the year that Voltaire died.
What cannot be seen clearly includes the obverse legend: GE. WASHINGTON ER. GENERAL OF THE CONTINL. ARMY IN AMERICA. The reverse would show a radiant military trophy (cannon, mortar, cannonballs, drum. trumpet, and flags with legend: WASHIN. REUNIT PAR UN RARE ASSEMBLAGE LES TALENS DU GUERRIER & LES VERTUS DU SAGE.
We should be able to place the peace medal too, (middle row far right) but that will take a trip to the library for me. I do like the way the museum stamped the coins "1789" so as not to get them mixed up with new donations. They might as well go at it with brasso and steel wool to make'em shine, excuse me "to conserve" them.
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Valued Member
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Bingo! - The medal in the middle row far right appears to be the reverse of a 1783 Treaty of Versailles: Peace of Paris medal. I believe we are seeing Minerva standing, with a display of shields of France, Britain, Holland and Spain suspended from a ribbon with legend COMMVNI CONSENSV, 44 mm, in white metal. See Betts #68 and Eimer #803. The obverse (not pictured) would show Louis XVI seated left, swathed in robes decorated with lilies who points to a thirteen bar shield which "Liberty" (suffering a wardrobe malfunction)attaches to a pillar surmounted by the "Cap of Liberty," with legend LIBERTAS AMERICANA and MDCCLXXXIII. To me on first glance it looks like two folks in badly fitting blankets about to swat down a hornets nest hanging six feet up a tree trunk, not in a position to run without tripping. You can just about hear the buzzing and expect to see the swarm in the next frame of the cartoon. Not that it is badly rendered, far from it, this is soberly and seriously very well done, but it comes from a time no one knew what United Provinces/States? symbols would look like or represent. The "Liberty cap" looks Dutch on this medal for instance having a rakish brim. Fascinating!
Who will look up the Franklin piece?
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Very cool! Thank you p for posting. Pistareen....excellent info!
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Thanks Pistareen! What do you think of the Connecticut attribution, amida?
Edited by philadelphian
02/22/2015 12:43 pm
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Quote:
What do you think of the Connecticut attribution, amida? It does look like the shape of the 6.3 head, however, I am at a loss to be sure. With these pics I would defer to you p. |
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This is from the London Chronicle of April 16, 1778, with regard to the medal on the left:  |
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Thanks P! I just love reading about the history.
Member ANA and EAC "You got to lose to know how to win". Dream On by Aerosmith |
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I looked at the Connecticut and lean toward 1785, M6.4 rather than M6.3 but it could be either given the difficult to see image. The Nova Constellatio seems to be a large script U.S. of 1785 too. It looks like all fit the profile of being around in Philadelphia in 1789. What else would you think should go with this group that would be available in Philadelphia, mid-1789 to go in the cornerstone, that those Victorians might have esteemed highly and kept to themselves? If they were looking at the objects a hundred years after placement, in 1889, Dalton & Hammer and Betts were not yet in print. If you look through Dye's Coin Encyclopedia which was new then, is anything obviously missing which screams America to the ages? How about a 1785 Vermont landscape? What you find is that most Washington pieces are late compared to his first inauguration which happened in both Philadelphia and New York in 1789. Do you suppose there was any connection between Washington being present in Philadelphia for inauguration and the dedication of the cornerstone? That is a question for the new Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, where his original records reside.
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Miller 6.4? I beg to differ. Look at the lay of the leaves in the head wreath, but more importantly, the fillets (hair ribbons), which fall below the A in AUCTORI in the coin from the cornerstone.  |
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Posted 02/21/2015 10:16 pm
