"1880" (1880-1904) Francois-Louis Teissedre de Fleury, Assault on

"1880" (1880-1904) Francois-Louis Teissedre de Fleury, Assault on Stony Point Medal. U.S. Mint Copy Dies. Betts-566, Julian MI-4. Bronze. MS-66 (PCGS). 46.0 mm. Lustrous and lightly reflective, with rich copper-brown surfaces highlighted with autumn-orange and mahogany. Double struck to bring up the exacting relief, even the most intricate design elements are fully rendered and crisp. Very attractive, though a few trivial blemishes are seen, the most readily evident of which is a small, out of the way carbon spot at the obverse border between the letters RT in VIRTUTIS. One of the most elusive Philadelphia Mint medals of the Comitia Americana series, with a mintage of just 45 pieces between 1882 and 1904. The copy dies were prepared in 1880 but not put into use until the second half of 1882; the initial mintage of 20 must have sold out quickly, as two more medals were struck the following year. According to Julian, Mint Superintendent A. Loudon Snowden borrowed a silver original De Fleury medal from a New York collector named Robert Stuart in March 1880. After new dies were produced, copying their central motifs from Stuart's medal but composed with new punches and lettering, "Snowden returned the silver medal along with a newly-struck bronze copy on June 24, 1880." Interestingly, no bronze medal was listed on the 1880 roster of medals manufactured at the Philadelphia Mint, suggesting that those mintage figures can perhaps be taken with a grain of salt. Regardless of the precise figure, this is a very scarce U.S. Mint medal, one that challenges even those collectors who have decided to forego acquisition of a Paris original. 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

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