Catalog Reference

Adams-Bentley 14
A.J.N., VII, 49; IX, 29
Fuld FR.M.NL.3-4
Greenslet GM-33-34

This medal was adopted into the Comitia Americana series by virtue of Thomas Jefferson's placement of an example in George Washington's custom-assembled set of the Comitia Americana medals in silver. This medal's historical importance really comes from the moment of its creation. Franklin had left Paris just months earlier, the most beloved American in that country until Jerry Lewis arrived. Franklin's reputation throughout Europe was unsurpassed: as a diplomat, as a scientist, and as a man whose wisdom and simplicity belied the heart of a bon vivant. This medal was his friend Augustin Dupre's final thanks for his friendship and some of the most meaningful commissions of his medallic career. The reverse exergual signature is not a simple credit line, but a valediction: SCULPSIT ET DICAVIT / AUG. DUPRE ANNO / MDCCLXXXVI or "Sculpted and dedicated by Augustin Dupre in the year 1786."

As we noted when selling the silver John W. Adams specimen of this Betts number:

"The Adams and Bentley census located 14 specimens of this medal in silver, including examples at the Massachusetts Historical Society (Washington's own), Yale University, Vienna's Kunsthistoriches Museum, the Royal Coin Cabinet of Sweden, and two in the Stadtisches Museum in Braunschweig. This reflects the great affection in which Franklin was held throughout Europe. Once the Winged Genius reverse broke and was replaced with the reverse seen here, this became the current medal available from Dupre and the Paris Mint at the time of Franklin's death in 1790. This was the medal available to Jefferson when he assembled Washington's set of Comitia Americana medals before leaving Paris in 1789. In restrike form, first from these original dies and later from copy dies, the Paris Mint kept this medal in stock throughout the 19th century."

At that time we estimated a population of perhaps as many as 20, of which about half are in private hands.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the Sydney F. Martin Part 5 Collection, where it realized $9,600.