1776 (1783) AR Medal Betts-615, Libertas Americana MS (PCGS#151000)
The March 2011 Baltimore Auction
- 拍卖行
- Stack's Bowers
- 批号
- 7
- 等级
- AU55
- 价格
- 527,163
- 详细说明
- "1781" (1782) Libertas Americana Medal. Betts-615. Silver. AU-55 (PCGS). 48 millimeters. Obv: a beautiful head of Liberty with flowing hair faces left with a liberty pole behind the portrait, the inscription LIBERTAS. AMERICANA. above and the date 4 JUIL. 1776. below in exergue. Rev: the young United States as the infant Hercules strangling two serpents and being protected from the British lion by France, depicted as Minerva, the inscription NON SINE DIIS ANIMOSUS INFANS. (The infant is not bold without divine aid.) is above and the dates 17 OCT. 1777. and 19 OCT. 1781. are below in exergue.<br /> Struck in Paris to commemorate peace following the American victory over Great Britain in the Revolutionary War, the Libertas Americana is the most beautiful and important of the peace medals. The concept and mottos displayed by this medal are attributed to Benjamin Franklin, who at the time was serving as U.S. commissioner to France. While in France, Franklin set about the production of a medal to give to a select few he deemed instrumental in securing American independence. The Libertas Americana Medal was to be symbolic of the winning of American liberty, not only on the battlefields of the New World but also in the courts of Europe, most particularly that of France. For without French support American victory over Great Britain would not have been possible. And since it was Franklin who secured the support of the king and queen of France, he was as indispensable to the political victory of the American Colonies as George Washington was to their military victory.<br /> The dies for the Libertas Americana Medal were cut in Paris in 1782 by Augustin Dupre. The obverse portrait would later influence the first renditions of Liberty to appear on United States coinage, specifically those of the Liberty Cap copper coinage and the Flowing Hair silver coinage. The reverse design is highly symbolic, the two
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