"1776" (ca. 1867) Abraham Lincoln / Libertas Americana Muling. By John Adams Bolen. Musante JAB M-3. Copper. Marked "B 5" on Edge. MS-66 BN (PCGS).
25.3 mm. 165.2 grains. An exceptional piece with mottled vibrant blue and violet iridescence over both sides, and a trace of gold beneath the portrait of Lincoln. Deeply prooflike and clearly struck from dies that had been little used. Almost no evidence of handing beyond some minor marks hidden within Lincoln's hair that are not easily noticed. Beautifully struck on a thick flan, and Bolen's personal reference specimen. Johnson's 1882 listing gives the mintage in copper as five, matching what Bolen himself marked on the edge of this piece. This aligns with the report that Johnson worked, at least in part, from Bolen's own set of proofs, including this very medal and many of the others offered here. It also aligns with what is seen in the marketplace - virtually nothing! This is clearly a great rarity of the Bolen catalog, as are nearly all of this series of mulings. Musante reported having found no auction appearances at all and illustrated it in his book with a composite image. It was reported in the March 1868 AJN that Major C.P. Nichols loaned to the ANS a set of "Six Medalets in copper, recently cut by Bolen, vis. : Washington; Jefferson; Jackson; Webster; Lincoln; and himself, with a reduced "Libertas Americana" as a reverse." Curiously, however, in the June 1868 AJN listing, which Nichols had a large hand in producing, there were mentioned special order mulings of this series, for Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln, but no others. We are unaware of such a muling including a Webster obverse. None is listed in the Johnson work, nor in the Musante catalog, though it makes sense that it would be a part of this set.
From the Martin Logies Collection. Earlier ex personal reference collection of John Adams Bolen; our sale of the E Pluribus Unum Collection, Part III, November 2021 Baltimore Auction, lot 10252.

Estimate: $2500