1837 Martin Van Buren Indian Peace Medal. Silver. Third Size. Julian IP-19. Prucha-44. Choice Fine.

51.0 mm. 772.3 grains. Pierced for suspension, as issued, with the hole fairly well worn. Somewhat deep steel gray through the obverse fields while the legends and devices are lighter gray creating a nice contrast. The reverse is mostly light gray with some darker patina close to the rims. Typical marks of indigenous wear are seen on both sides, with small rim nicks, field marks and scratches. A single long thin scratch right of Van Buren's portrait seems worthy of mention, while a series of somewhat heavy scratches in the lower right reverse field are certainly out of the ordinary as far as the usual wear goes. Struck from the only state of the reverse die observed in this pairing, with a single small die chip outside of inner rim border just below 3 o'clock. This die was used to strike all of the medals of this size bearing dates 1809 through 1845 and would eventually develop a secondary break beneath the one just described, an indicator of a later restrike when present. All third-size silver Van Burens seen have been originals. Carl Carlson recorded only five auction records for this size, the smallest number of appearances for the three sizes in silver. Thirteen specimens have been accounted for in the writer's census, two of which are suspected but not confirmed by images. Four of these are in institutional collections at the ANS, Colonial Williamsburg, Massachusetts Historical Society and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis.

From the Ronald A. Slovick Family Collection. Earlier from our (Bowers and Merena's) sale of November 1985, lot 4260.

Estimate: $6500