Nomos AG
Auction 21 21 Nov 2020
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UNITED STATES. Medal (Silver, 47 mm, 52.47 g, 12 h), The first medal of the United States; commissioned by Benjamin Franklin, the American ambassador to France, as thanks for the help given by France during the successful struggle for the independence of Britain's Thirteen Colonies in America, struck in Paris, 1783; conceived by Benjamin Franklin, engraved by Augustin Dupré and with the reverse design refined by the painter Esprit-Antoine Gibelin. LIBERTAS • AMERICANA Bust of Liberty to left, with her hair flowing out behind her; behind her head and coming out behind her neck, pole bearing a Phrygian Cap (or Liberty Cap); on the neck truncation, DVPRE; in exergue, 4 JUIL• 1776• (the date of the Declaration of Independence). Rev. NON SINE DIIS ANIMOSUS INFANS• (= the courageous child was aided by the gods) The infant Hercules (America), strangling two snakes (the defeated British armies at Saratoga and Yorktown), while being protected by Minerva (France), in ancient dress, wearing a crested helmet and an aegis, and holding a short spear in her right hand and, in her left, a shield ornamented with three fleurs-de-lis, from a lioness (Britain) attacking to left; above the exergual line to right, DVPRE.F; in the exergue, the dates of the victories at Saratoga and Yorktown, 17/19 - OCT• - 1777•/1781•. Betts 615. Ford Collection XIV, 23 May 2006, 289. K. Jaeger & Q. David Bowers, 100 Greatest American Medals and Tokens, Racine, 2007, 1 (considered to be the most important of all American medals). Loubat 14. Extremely rare, one of 23-25 known examples. Beautifully and sharply struck with proof-like surfaces, lovely iridescent toning and original mint lustre. A few very minor marks, otherwise, virtually as struck.
In a letter dated 4 March 1782 that Benjamin Franklin, the American ambassador to France, sent to Robert Livingston, then Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the United States, he stated his intention to commission a medal commemorating the help France provided to the Americans during their revolution against England. The planning and work on the medal continued into 1783: the design was finalized with the help of the artist and archaeologist Esprit-Antoine Gibelin (1739-1813; he was from Aix-en-Provence and this medal is one of his most famous works) and the engraver and medalist Augustin Dupré (1748-1833). The first available medals were sent out by Franklin along with a letter to Livingston dated to 15 April 1783; though an essay was sent out earlier to Sir William Jones, who had provided the quote from Horace that appears as the reverse legend (Odes, III/4, 20). In the same letter Franklin sent to Livingston on the 15th, he also explained that while he was enclosing a silver medal for the President of Congress, he was sending a copper one for him, since he thought the copper ones were more aesthetically pleasing because of their color. Silver ones, like this piece, were struck in much smaller numbers - several went to the ministers of the French Court - and only approximately 23-25 exist today. This is the most important and significant of all the medals produced for the United States of America.
Most unusually is the fact that the lion used as a symbol of Britain on the reverse of this medal is actually a lioness, rather than the expected fully maned male lion that is the actual heraldic animal of Britain. Could this mean that the reverse type is even more elaborately symbolic than it appears on the surface? We have an infant between two archetypical female figures: on the right, an attacking lioness, showing that Britain has become an unnatural, evil mother seeking to harm her own child, while the figure of France, shown here as Minerva/Athena, has taken over full maternal care and is valiantly protecting her beloved, adopted child. Also of interest is that the head of Liberty, with her flowing hair, was adopted as the obverse type of the first US federal coinages, which began to be produced in 1792.
In a letter dated 4 March 1782 that Benjamin Franklin, the American ambassador to France, sent to Robert Livingston, then Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the United States, he stated his intention to commission a medal commemorating the help France provided to the Americans during their revolution against England. The planning and work on the medal continued into 1783: the design was finalized with the help of the artist and archaeologist Esprit-Antoine Gibelin (1739-1813; he was from Aix-en-Provence and this medal is one of his most famous works) and the engraver and medalist Augustin Dupré (1748-1833). The first available medals were sent out by Franklin along with a letter to Livingston dated to 15 April 1783; though an essay was sent out earlier to Sir William Jones, who had provided the quote from Horace that appears as the reverse legend (Odes, III/4, 20). In the same letter Franklin sent to Livingston on the 15th, he also explained that while he was enclosing a silver medal for the President of Congress, he was sending a copper one for him, since he thought the copper ones were more aesthetically pleasing because of their color. Silver ones, like this piece, were struck in much smaller numbers - several went to the ministers of the French Court - and only approximately 23-25 exist today. This is the most important and significant of all the medals produced for the United States of America.
Most unusually is the fact that the lion used as a symbol of Britain on the reverse of this medal is actually a lioness, rather than the expected fully maned male lion that is the actual heraldic animal of Britain. Could this mean that the reverse type is even more elaborately symbolic than it appears on the surface? We have an infant between two archetypical female figures: on the right, an attacking lioness, showing that Britain has become an unnatural, evil mother seeking to harm her own child, while the figure of France, shown here as Minerva/Athena, has taken over full maternal care and is valiantly protecting her beloved, adopted child. Also of interest is that the head of Liberty, with her flowing hair, was adopted as the obverse type of the first US federal coinages, which began to be produced in 1792.