THE 1856 SAMPSON MEDAL

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V28 2025 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 28, Number 12, 2025, Article 11

E-Sylum Feature Writer and American Numismatic Biographies author Pete Smith submitted this third and final article on national hero and serial medal recipient Thomas Sampson. Thank you! -Editor

In 1904, workers were excavating for construction of a subway power house near Eleventh Avenue between Fifty-Eighth and Fifty-Ninth streets in Manhattan. A workman dug up a large silver medal, took it home to clean it and returned to turn it over to the son of former police Captain John Delaney.

Delaney recognized the name on the medal as Thomas Sampson. He knew that Charles H. Phillips, a records keeper at the police headquarters, was the brother of James C. Phillips, who was married to Cornelia Sampson, daughter of Thomas. The medal was sent to Cornelia, residing at Mount Vernon, New York.

The medal was presented to Sampson in 1856 by the Life Savings Benevolent Association of New York (LSBANY). The medal is 51.1 mm diameter and should contain about 41 grams of .999 silver. It was struck by Tiffany & Co., with dies attributed to George Hampton Lovett.

The obverse shows a ship foundering in the surf. On the shore is a refuge station while workers use a Lyle gun to fire a lifeline to the ship. Around the inner border near the top is the legend "LIFE SAVING BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK." In the exergue is "INC 29th of MARCH / 1849."

The reverse has an oak wreath and legend: "VITA FELICIBUS AUSIS SERVATA." This translates from the Latin as, "Human Life Saved by Successful Daring Deeds." The central field is engraved:

The presentation was mentioned in the New York Tribune of August 23, 1856. The article reported, "During the last few years Mr. Thomas Sampson, an officer attached to the Chief's bureau but appointed from the Eighteenth Ward, has rescued no less than six persons who has, by their own imprudence or by accident, fallen into the docks. In some of these instances this officer has jeopardized his life to save those of his fellows."

The Association transmitted the medal by letter to the chief of police to be presented to Sampson.

In 1855, New York Mayor Fernando Wood presented Sampson with a silver medal for saving four lives but no water rescues were described. I have been unable to find contemporary descriptions of any of the water rescues cited in awards.

The 1888 lifesaving medal awarded by Congress was reported as his sixteenth medal. Obituaries written in 1901 mention the sixteen medals. There is no mention of any lost medal.

In 1886, Congress passed an Act to grant a gold medal to Thomas Sampson. This required verification of the lifesaving events honored. Sampson was not able to provide eyewitnesses to the events thirty some years earlier.

In 1888, Congress passed a second Act. It was reported that Sampson used two medals as verification. These had been presented by the Life Saving Benevolent Association of New York for his lifesaving acts in 1854 and 1856. While Thompson is credited with saving at least thirteen lives, only the five noted on the LSBANY medals were mentioned on the Congressional Gold Medal.

This verifies that the two LSBANY medals were in the possession of Sampson in 1888. Other reports say he kept the medals in a safe at the Sub Treasury or at a safe at the house of a friend.

How did the one medal get to the excavation site in 1904 and what happened to all the rest of the Thompson medals? As William Shatner would say, "the answers remain, unexplained." (A TV show catchphrase)

For some people a gold medal is like a cash award. Heirs who receive gold medals may choose to have them melted to receive the value in cash. There is a high probability that the Sampson medals have been melted.

I have not found any past record of sale of the Sampson medals. If they came up for auction today, these recent articles might provide added value.

If the Sampson medals were unique and lost or destroyed, is there any value to these recent articles? Will anyone care about the story for a medal that does not exist?

In 1901, the U. S. Navy instituted an award for service in the West Indies during the Spanish American War. The Sampson medal is named for Admiral William Thomas Thompson and is unrelated to New York Captain Thomas Sampson.

Numismatic research is by nature uncertain - if you already knew the answer you wouldn't be looking for one. In this case, Pete was unable to locate any reference to the current existence of Sampson's medals, but the journey is almost always worthwhile. E-Sylum readers and I all learned a lot about Honest Tom Sampson, the Life Savings Benevolent Association of New York and its medals, as well as the lifesaving medals issued by the U.S. Congress.

We can never rule out whether one or more of Sampson's medals will turn up someday. And if that happens some future cataloguer will likely turn to Pete's articles for information. For an example of such a lost-lost medal discovery, look no further than the one-of-a-kind Daniel Morgan gold Comitia Americana medal that surfaced in 2022 after having been generations in hiding.

What are some other examples of numismatic items referenced in the literature that were unknown until an example suddenly showed up? -Editor