Circa 1792 Twigg Medal. Musante GW-38, Baker-65. White Metal. MS-64 (PCGS).

35.6 mm. 277.0 grains. Essentially brilliant surfaces with traces of pale blue and gold detected under strong light. A few microscopic flecks are noted on both sides, consistent with complete originality. Boldly struck and pleasantly prooflike in the fields, while the devices stand out with a fine satin frost. A tiny void near Washington’s epaulet is as made and corresponds to a larger formation that was clearly irregular in the flan and struck mostly smooth when this was made. Many Twigg medals have similar ghostly shapes at their centers and speak to a consistent peculiarity with the flans. According to Neil Musante, Charles Twigg was a Birmingham, England-based toy maker. He made very few medallic works, and this is the only one devoted to Washington. Though Twigg medals are often nice and remarkably free of pesting and other problems of early white metal issues, this example is particularly so. The first sale of a Twigg in the United States we are aware of was in the May 1860 Cogan sale, where it was described as “excessively rare” and sold to John McCoy for $6.

From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier ex Anthony Terranova; Lawrence R. Stack Collection, November 2006.