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 Replies: 13 / Views: 1,548 |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
Today I was fortunate to be able to acquire the two highest PCGS graded 1783 Peace of Versailles "Libertas Americana" Medals (Betts-608) in Tin, with Copper Scavenger. This is the other "Libertas Americana" Medal. Both coins acquired today come from the famed Martin Logies' Cardinal Education Foundation Collection. There is one graded higher at MS62 by NGC but I don't think that example is as nice as these two coins. That coin can be seen in pictures below. Coin 1: An unusually nice example of this popular medal, struck in Europe to mark the end of the American Revolution and the associated conflicts. Bright and lustrous, with deeply reflective and untoned fields. The scavenger, a plug of copper inserted at the exergual line before striking, has done its job, attracting corrosion and toning to dark brown. The scavenger's presence has allowed the tin to remain boldly brilliant, which is exactly why it's there. [This is great of European technological innovation which apparently wasn't taken up widely, but they tried. Both coins exhibit the scavenger plug] The detail is sharply rendered on both sides, and the concentric lathe lines remaining from the machining of the unstruck planchet are still subtly visible. The fields show trivial handling marks and lines, but none are terribly significant. Probably struck in Germany for a principally Dutch and French audience, this medal borrows the "Libertas Americana" legend from the popular medal conceived by Ben Franklin, placing it with two allegorical scenes. One depicts King Louis XVI gesturing to a pole topped with a Dutch style "free hat" that displays a 13-striped shield, representing the new United States. The reverse shows a goddess of Victory holding the shields of four European powers -- England, France, Spain, and the Netherlands -- while a Gorgon-faced shield of war is cast aside. Provenance: From the Cardinal Collection Educational Foundation.    Coin 2: Another example of this important medal, contemporary to the end of the American Revolution and to the more famous medal that uses the same obverse legend. Boldly lustrous and untoned, with a scattering of small marks on both sides and a hint of oxidation haze in the fields. A lovely example of a type that should be in any focused collection of medals of the Revolutionary War. Provenance: From the Cardinal Collection Educational Foundation.    These are pictures of the only higher graded example of this coin encapsulated by NGC which I do not own but is shown for reference.    IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.comEdited by numismatic student
06/14/2022 7:15 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
11880 Posts |
Odd that the scavenger plug does not appear to be round in the NGC example.
IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.com |
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Moderator
 United States
187840 Posts |
Outstanding!  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.comEdited by numismatic student
06/14/2022 5:39 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4233 Posts |
Aren't the large images of coins 1 and 2 the same coin? Am I going nuts?
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
Well, the slab #'s are different. They did come from the same collection/owner though.
IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.com |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
Looking again, I may have switched the pictures. Let me see the files again.
IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.com |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
This is bizarre because the number on the slab matches the number on the trueview, but the scavengers are in different positions. I had to match the pictures based on the position of the scavengers rather than the slab ID#s. Looks like PCGS botched the trueview slab # labeling. Nice catch kbbpll. PCGS must have mislabeled the trueviews for these two coins. kbbpll has found a new type of PCGS error. Call the CCF Press, pronto!!! In these two pictures, the cert #s are the same at 28095443 but in the slab, the scavenger sits above the CL of the date while on the trueview with the same cert, the scavenger is above the LX of the date.  In these next two pictures, the cert #s are the same at 20771390 but in the slab, the scavenger sits above the LX of the date while on the trueview with the same cert, the scavenger is above the CL of the date.  IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.comEdited by numismatic student
06/14/2022 7:36 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4233 Posts |
You replaced the images in your original post, so my earlier comment no longer makes sense. Just for those playing along at home. Your first two (if I can remember that far back) were different images of the same coin.
I looked up the certs and you are correct. They put the TrueViews with the wrong cert numbers. That really instills confidence when you look up a coin there, doesn't it. Or did they put the wrong coins in each slab? Now how do we know they're both really MS61? What a crap shoot.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3641 Posts |
Very interesting examples. I've never heard of the use of a scavenger plug such as this. Regarding the PCGS image mixup, I recently bought an NGC coin (a common proof bicentennial Washington quarter) and when I verified the cert number on the NGC site, it showed the obverse of the coin I bought but the reverse of a very different coin...  Edited by hokiefan_82
06/15/2022 01:57 am
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Pillar of the Community
 Sweden
2124 Posts |
Super nice medals! The copper plug certainly adds to the interest.
Probably struck in Nuremberg, die cutter Johann Leonhard Oexlein (his OE signature is visible to the right of Liberty's feet on the obverse). I think the reverse shows Minerva/Pallas Athena, the goddess of wisdom, justice and military strategy, placing her spear (symbol of war) into an olive tree (symbol of peace).
The image of the absolute monarch Louis XVI of France paying homage to the rebellion against another monarch might seem to illustrate a conflict of interests. Of course, the other monarch was George III, representing the arch-enemy England, so ... But little did Louis XVI know that only six years later would he himself face the revolutionary spirit, and with much worse consequences for himself.
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Moderator
United States
15395 Posts |
Fascinating medals - thank you for sharing the images and stories.
Curious though - why did you acquire two of the same medal in the same grade?
edit for spllneging
Edited by nickelsearcher
06/15/2022 05:35 am
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
@kbbpll thanks for posting out the error. @hokiefan_82 Great example of another TPG error. Wish the quarter had that reverse. LOL @erafiel thank you for your erudite addition. Awesome to know the diemaker for this piece of art. @nickelsearcher I felt it was sacrilege to separate brother and sister and thought they should remain paired as they have been in at least the recent past. Besides I have two kiddos so it works out well. IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.comEdited by numismatic student
06/15/2022 09:41 am
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Moderator
United States
95075 Posts |
Pretty nice coins! I had to go back and re-learn roman numerals again to read the date.
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Replies: 13 / Views: 1,548 |
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Posted 06/14/2022 3:34 pm
