BOOK REVIEW: MEDALLIC WASHINGTON

MEDALLIC WASHINGTON, A Catalogue of Struck, Cast and Manufactured Coins, Tokens and Medals Issued in Commemoration of George Washington 1777-1890
by Neil Musante (Two Volumes, Spink & Son, 2016)

Neil Musante’s new book on the medals, tokens and federal coinage related to George Washington is a beautifully produced, painstakingly researched, and well-written catalogue that every serious American numismatist will want to own and read. The dozens of mini-chapters synthesize previously published research on the most important pieces, and Musante has added his own considerable new findings and thoughts. With nearly 900 pages of crisp color photos illustrating essentially all the pieces – which are described in detail, including die varieties – the book is both valuable for study and beautiful even to just flip through. Importantly, it establishes a new, chronological numbering scheme that is much more logical and convenient than the Baker (Rulau/Fuld) numbers used for the last 130 years. Medallic Washington will undoubtedly become the new standard reference on the subject, and a classic in its own right.

As Neil Musante describes in a thorough introduction, several early lists of Washington medals and tokens were relatively incomplete and mostly comprised the pieces in the collections of their authors. The Medallic Memorials of Washington in the Mint of the United States, by James Ross Snowden (1861) was a record of the small collection of 138 medals that Snowden assembled for display at the U.S. Mint. In 1873, William Sumner Appleton published a list of his collection in a series of issues of the American Journal of Numismatics, and in 1876 published an addendum, bringing his list to 354 Washington pieces.

William Spohn Baker’s Medallic Portraits of Washington was the first definitive catalogue of Washington pieces, consisting of a text list and descriptions of 651 medals and tokens organized topically on about 250 pages, with very limited, commentary. Other subsequent lists didn’t add much. The Early Medals of Washington, published by Wayte Raymond in 1941, was a thin pamphlet with only 42 mostly early medals listed, but all pictured for the first time. Krause Publications reprinted Baker’s work in 1965, adding 14 photographic plates at the back. Washingtonia from the Estate of F.C.C. Boyd, by Jack Collins (1991) was actually a fixed price catalogue of 702 items that Collins had acquired from John J. Ford for resale, with 36 plates illustrating nearly 500 medals, a few of which had not been listed by Baker.

Collectors have continued to use the Baker numbers, partly because the only other recent catalogue of Washington-related numismatics was the 1985 Medallic Portraits of Washington, Centennial Edition, by Russell Rulau and George Fuld. Rulau and Fuld retained the Baker organization and numbering scheme, adding letters before the Baker numbers to designate entirely new and unrelated items, and inconsistently applied letters after the Baker numbers to designate a given variety in various metals, such as A for silver, B for copper, etc. It was essentially an illustrated price guide to Baker, as it provided small newspaper-quality photographs of many items, a small amount of historical background and estimated values. A second edition published in 1999 provided a few additions, numerous corrections and somewhat updated pricing.

Neil Musante has built on this formidable foundation of previous research and cataloguing to give us a complete revision of Baker, arranged chronologically, with some exceptions to reflect variety and die relationships. It represents a synthesis of all of the known information on the many struck, cast and manufactured coins, tokens and medals issued in commemoration of George Washington through 1890 – basically the same scope as the original 1885 Baker, but including the 1889 inauguration centennial medals as well as a few other pieces issued just after Baker’s work was published. Musante lists over 1200, providing excellent color photographs of each medal’s obverse and reverse, with credit to the owner. Then, detailed traditional obverse and reverse prose descriptions of each medal are provided, with each followed by a table of technical information such as metals used, weight and size measurements, cross references to prior listings, rarity estimates and technical notes.

Among the most important positives of Neil Musante’s Medallic Washington are the comprehensive research and synthesis, the chronological organization, the beautiful photographs and sumptuous production. Beyond the considerable amount of new information not previously published, Musante has woven together all of the relevant information about the various Washington-related numismatic items into a series of interesting “stories.” The brief but thorough introduction on the history of Washington medal catalogues, major collections and exhibitions is extremely useful in putting this new work into context. It helps explain why a new numbering system is called for, to replace Baker’s confusing thematic arrangement, which Rulau and Fuld tried to maintain, and only made worse.

These stories build on the foundation of facts with some significant inference, in a few cases to the point of speculation. Musante is always very clear about where his musings surpass the facts, and his narratives are thought provoking. His arguments are well made in most cases, such as in the revised Washington Before Boston die progression.

All told, Neil Musante’s Medallic Washington is a new classic, beautifully produced, painstakingly researched, eminently readable, and well worth the $165 price. Among other things, it reminds us of why the Internet will never completely replace the printed book. Collectors of medals, tokens and federal coinage related to George Washington will love it, as will numismatic bibliophiles generally, and it has the potential to attract some new collectors to this historic and important series.

For more information on the Medal Collectors of America, see:
www.medalcollectors.org

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
NEW BOOK: MEDALLIC WASHINGTON (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n32a05.html)
BOOK REVIEW: MEDALLIC WASHINGTON (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n42a03.html)

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