An important and historic medal with a fascinating story to tell.

First off, Jackson’s portrait on on Indian Peace Medal is itself a grand irony, since he was an impassioned fighter against Indians during the Seminole Wars and perhaps best personified the attitude that ‘the only good Indian is a dead Indian.’

He oversaw, as President, the en toto removal of the Cherokee Nation from the American Southeast, particularly near the Georgia gold fields, to the west, namely Oklahoma. This mass forced migration, called the ‘Trail of Tears’, led to the foundation of the mints at Charlotte and Dahlonega.

Yet here he is, on a medal which has the tell tale appearance of one which was actually awarded and worn, most likely by a Chief or important tribe member.

Most Jackson Indian Peace medals were distributed through the St. Louis office of William Clark (the Clark of Lewis and Clark). Odds are that he probably once had this very medal in his hand (how cool is that?).

Though distributed in Missouri (as well as places like Oklahoma and Kansas) – the far frontier in the early 1830s – these medals moved as their tribes moved. The Smithsonian has one that was purchased on a reservation in Montana in the 1920s.

Ford’s two specimens of this size in Ford XVI, though finer, brought north of $20,000 each. This one, more worn, probably witnessed a lot more history than those – indeed, for Peace medals, good clean wear with no damage is often preferred over high sharpness (as it indicates a medal awarded, as opposed to one that sat in someone’s drawer). Ford had one where the hole had been crudely plugged and it still brought $7,500 plus the juice.

When the late, great Carl Carlson did research on Mint medal populations in the mid 1980s, using the libraries of the ANS and Stack’s, he found only 4 appearances of this size; two of those represented the same specimen, once in the Garrett collection.

In all, a significant piece of Americana available here for less than the price of a lot of regular old coins.

Ex Stack’s May 2007 sale of the Ford Collection, Part XVII, lot #96.

$14,500

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