THE TUESDAY CLUB MEDAL

Betts-383. 1746 Annapolis Tuesday Club. Silver, with hanger. VF. 43.7 mm, 26.3 gm. Unsigned. The editors of Betts believed John Kirk might have engraved the dies. Forrer's Biographical Dictionary of Medallists attributes the medals to Kirk, a prolific medallist in London, born in 1724. However, a consensus has not been reached as to the identity of the engraver.

The Tuesday Club, a gentlemen's social club, was founded by Annapolis doctor Alexander Hamilton (no relation to one of the Founding Fathers several decades later) in May 1745 and was patterned after a club in his native Edinburgh, Scotland. The group met bi-weekly for eleven years, with the members eating and drinking together, and engaging in humorous banter and singing to name but a few of their many activities. Among the members was Jonas Green, publisher of the Maryland Gazette and printer of Maryland colonial paper money. All were assigned nicknames, with Hamilton dubbing himself Doctor Loquacious Scribble. He thoroughly documented the activities and conversations of the Tuesday Club. Books concerning the club have appeared as recently as the past few decades and have been well received due to the wit and comic nature of the material.

The members authorized production of these medals in 1748 and distributed them at the club's fifth anniversary in 1750. The obverse features a heart in the center, with two clasped hands in the foreground. "Annapolis" appears in script letters to the left, with "Maryland" present at right. THE TUESDAY CLUB appears above the heart, with MAY 14, 1746 below. The surrounding text translates as, "happily joining like-thinking fellows" according to Jaeger and Bowers in 100 Greatest American Medals and Tokens. Liberty is represented as a naked boy on the reverse. He is depicted seated with a pole and liberty cap near an altar. The inscription on the altar translates as, "liberty and homeland only." The outer text translates as, "Charles Cole, Esquire, President," commemorating the first president of the club.

These pieces are extremely rare, with this example one of only four known in gilt silver, with a sole known copper medal. The other three examples in gilt silver are all ensconced in institutional holdings, leaving this as the sole collectible example. Light wear appears on the high points of the design on this medal displaying attractive toning in shades of dark gold, silver-gray, teal, and violet. A few scattered light scratches appear, primarily surrounding the obverse center. Minor rim nicks are present.

Ex: John Work Garrett; Holdings of The John Hopkins University, private sale; Sotheby's (New York, 12/1993), lot 635; Lucien M. LaRiviere Collection, Part II (Bowers and Merena, 3/2001), lot 2067.
From The John W. Adams Collection.

To read the complete lot description, see:
Betts-383. 1746 Annapolis Tuesday Club. Silver, with hanger. (https://coins.ha.com/itm/betts-medals/betts-383-1746-annapolis-tuesday-club-silver-with-hanger-vf/a/1201-3062.s)

To read excerpts from The History of the Ancient and Venerable Tuesday Club, see:
The Tuesday Club of Annapolis, Maryland (http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/becomingamer/ideas/text4/tuesdayclub.pdf)

To read more at the Newman Numismatic Portal, see:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/searchwithterms?searchterm=tuesday%20club

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web