"1853" (ca. 1886) Fill Blessed Sun Medal. Musante GW-185, Baker E-96A.

"1853" (ca. 1886) Fill Blessed Sun Medal. Musante GW-185, Baker E-96A. White Metal. Specimen-61 (PCGS). 53.6 mm. Hints of prooflike character remain throughout the fields and is especially pronounced on the reverse. The devices are satiny and offer some contrast when viewed under direct lighting conditions. The impressive bold high-relief portrait of Washington, after the Houdon Bust executed by C.C. Wright, is fully appreciable here. Light hairlining is evident overall, the generally silver gray surface also somewhat muted in appearance to further explain the PCGS-assigned grade. This type is extremely rare, many years can pass between offerings. One of just nine known to the writer in white metal. Strikes in silver, copper and brass are likely unique; the copper one was the penultimate offered anywhere that we are aware of, in our November 2021 sale of the E Pluribus Unum Collection; it was followed more recently by our November 2025 sale of the John M. Pack white metal example that realized $2,640 as PCGS Specimen-63. Prior to that the most recent sale of a white metal example was more than a decade ago, also in one of our sales. William Spohn Baker was unaware of the type when he wrote his extensive study of Washington pieces in 1885, almost certainly because it had not yet been made, despite its date! By 1914 it had come to light, and the Chapman brothers called it "very rare" in their sale of the Parsons Collection that year. By the time the Fuld-Rulau revision of Baker was published, just three were known to the editors. Charles Ira Bushnell commissioned the medal of Charles Cushing Wright, apparently in 1853, but as none were known to Baker three decades later, they were likely not struck. The dies were sold in the Bushnell Sale in 1882 (lot 2817), and that is the first occasion that the possibility of these medals was published. The Chapmans commented that no impressions were known to them at the time, and they purchased the dies. It is believed that they are responsible for the few pieces that did get struck. The first struck medals we are aware of appeared in the George M. Parsons sale in June 1914. This medal was missing from many great cabinets of Washington pieces, including those of the Garrett Family, David Dreyfuss, Lucien LaRiviere and, remarkably, that of the Norweb Family. Click here for certification details from PCGS. Image with the PCGS TrueView logo is obtained from and is subject to a license agreement with Collectors Universe, Inc. and its divisions PCGS and PSA.

Estimate:£0.74

View all items fromStack's BowersorMedals, Arms & Armour