1889 Benjamin Harrison Indian Peace Medal. By Charles E. Barber and George T. Morgan. Julian IP-47, Prucha-58. Bronze. MS-63 BN (NGC).

58.5 mm x 74 mm, oval. Lovely gray-brown patina with plenty of original mint orange color remaining in the protected areas around the design elements. The strike is sharp and crisp, the surfaces smooth and satiny. A few trivial handling marks on the obverse portrait are all that preclude an even higher numeric grade. The oval Harrison medal is a very rare issue, even more so than the original Garfield Indian Peace medal. While there are known oval Garfields in silver, there are no such pieces known for the oval Harrison, an issue that is not believed to have been officially issued at all. Naturally, this puts more stress on the supply of bronzes, which is very limited. We have only four such medals in our online archives, three nice ones and one lower grade example with surface problems. The best one of these (MS-67 NGC) sold in our November 2020 sale of the Larry Ness Collection and realized $7,200. A more recent sale of the Larry Baber specimen (MS-65 NGC) netted $6,000 in our March 2021 Las Vegas Auction. This one ranks between those two in certified grade, but is still a superior example of the type. The initial plan for the Harrison medals was to follow what had been done beginning with the Hayes administration in 1877, creating an oval medal bearing the same reverse design. As there had been little demand for medals to be issued, most of these were struck out of tradition and for the Mint sales list anyway, so it is doubtful if much official thought was given to the process. When the Harrison administration did seek medals to award officially, it requested different designs prompted by direct requests from a delegation of Oto and Missouri men who had visited Washington. They specified that medals should be round, of a certain diameter and of good silver, even offering to pay the costs themselves. Thus, the ovals were not only never used in any official capacity, they likely fell immediately out of favor with any collectors close enough to the Mint to understand what had transpired. This said, the round Harrison medals in bronze are also very rare, so perhaps collector demand for this series at the time was minimal to begin with.

From Presidential Coin & Antique Co., Inc.'s sale of the Robert J. Centola Collections, November 1999, lot 311. Lot tag included.

Estimate: $ 2500