My new pickup, Libertas Americana medal.

[coinsarefun]

I'm very lucky to be able to pick up this electrotype last night on Heritage and wanted to share with everyone.

 

 

Obverse Electrotype of Libertas Americana Medal MS60 Uncertified. Copy of Betts-615

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jpcienkus]

Beautiful Medal. I was tracking that last night. I'm glad it found a nice home.

[CaptHenway]

Interesting. Any idea of vintage?

[Coindude]

That is just super cool.

[coinsarefun]

Interesting. Any idea of vintage?

 

 

 

 

I honestly don't know. I think its somewhere around the late 1800's but have no proof other than it appears to be a very well made electrotype. I sent a note out to a few dealers and asked them if they would have any idea and will post when I hear back.

 

 

 

[mrearlygold]

Congratulations, I was an underbidder:)

[BROADSTRUCK]

Interesting. Any idea of vintage?

 

 

 

 

I honestly don't know. I think its somewhere around the late 1800's but have no proof other than it appears to be a very well made electrotype. I sent a note out to a few dealers and asked them if they would have any idea and will post when I hear back.

 

 

 

It's only the second I've seen and the far nicer of the two.

 

Although I haven't sought these out or done any research I recall reading these had been done in the mid 1800's.

[BillJones]

Years ago I had a Libertas Americana electro with both sides joined before I owned the real thing. Times have certainly changed on the price of these electors. I bought mine for about $25 and sold it a couple years later for $50. Now they run into the hundreds.

 

Here is my example.

 

[VDBCoins]

Congratulations CoinsAreFun on a great acquisition!

 

Not totally off-topic but when I went back to Yale recently for a concert I was able to meet and chat with the curator of the Yale Numismatic Collection, charming fellow named Bill Metcalf. After we had a good long visit and looked at some coins and medals (I was interested in their Bela Pratt and Russian stuff; little did I know what awaited me downstairs on display afterwards), we said our adieus and I went down as directed into the lower parts of Street Hall (the Numismatic Collection is part of the fabulous, world-class Yale Art Gallery) to the American Decorative Arts Before the 20th Century section (yep, how many museums have one of those?).

 

Hanging on the wall -- rather anonymously unless one knew what one was looking at, along with many other medals, all behind a plexiglass shield (and with quite good security, I was glad to see) -- was a beautiful, high-end AU silver Libertas Americana medal. A little pamphlet in a wall hanger gave brief curatorial descriptions of each medal in the display. For many of them the legend was something like "Bequest of Wyllys A. Betts" Gasp! I flipped to the Libertas Americana: "Bequest of Wyllys A. Betts" (however they phrased it). My word! I was looking at Wyllys Betts' own silver Libertas Americana! I started thinking back to what I knew about Betts. That he was a New Haven resident. That is where Yale is. It was the end of a long day, and a lot of the medals I didn't have time to more than glance at briefly. I remember, though, an Indian Peace Medal of George I. Never saw one of those before.

 

I don't know a thing about Betts' family life, but it certainly looks as though his entire Betts medal collection may be in the hands of Yale. I have down on my list to call Dr. Metcalf back and see what else I can found out.

 

When I got back to my hotel room I was still so stunned that I had to pick up the phone and call a couple of numismatic friends to share the news. Even though we gave a wonderful concert, the Betts medals were, numismatically speaking, the highlight of the trip.

 

Best Regards,

 

George