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NUMISMAGRAM MEDAL SELECTIONS: MARCH 8, 2026Numismagram's Jeremy Bostwick sent along these five medals from his most recent upload of new material to his site. For all of the new items, please visit https://www.numismagram.com/inventory. -Garrett 
103483 | FRANCE. Imperial Palace bronze Gaming Token or Jeton. Issued circa 1812 (28mm, 12h). By Raymond Gayrard at the Paris mint. HEUR ET MALHEUR (the good and the bad), female janiform head, with a somewhat smirking expression facing left and a somewhat annoyed expression facing right // Fortune, carrying overturned cornucopia and advancing left, leading Cupid (or Amor), who holds walking stick; both have their eyes blindfolded; in exergue, two moles advancing left. Bramsen 1200; Julius 2578. PCGS MS-64. Pleasing brown surfaces, with great brilliance in the fields; minor planchet crack near the edge is noted for completeness. The only example of the type observed in the PCGS census.
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103318 | UNITED STATES, CANADA & NETHERLANDS. American-Canadian Border Arbitration silver Medal. Issued 1829 celebrating the role of Willem I, King of the Netherlands, in the "arbitration" (43mm, 28.67 g, 12h). Of uncertain manufacture. WILHELMVS I NEERLANDIAE REX LVX. M. DVX, bust facing slightly right in military attire // AB / ANGLIS / ET / AMERICANIS / SEPTEMTRIONAL. / DE / TERMINO MOTO / ARBITER / VOCATUS / 1829 (as an intermediary, he called for the settling of the border between the English [ie, Canada] and the North Americans [ie, United States]) in ten lines. Edge: Plain. Dirks 310; Pax in Nummis 802; Leroux 830; Hunter Coll. 437 [R4]; Wurzbach 9757; Ford V, 187; Medina 398. PCGS MS-64. Very attractively toned and with exceptional iridescence and luster; a stray mark in the reverse field prevents an even higher, gem designation. Very rare in silver, especially in such an elevated state of preservation as is the case here. The Ford specimen, listed as a prooflike Choice Uncirculated piece, realized a total of $1,955 over two decades ago in 2005. Ex Munthandel Verschoor inventory, January 2000. Growing tensions between the United States and Canada, particularly between the state of Maine (US) and the provinces of Québec and New Brunswick (Canada), following the ends of the American Revolution and the War of 1812 left the borders between the two countries in somewhat of a flux. By the latter part of the 1820s, King Willem I of the Netherlands intervened as an intermediary, brokering a tentative border solution. While celebrated as successful on this medal, a resolution was not agreed upon at the time, with the conflict continuing for over another decade, recognizably in the form of the Aroostook War of 1838-1839. Finally, with the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842, the border in this area was settled, roughly comporting to the lines originally suggested by Willem over a decade prior. Regarding manufacture of this medal, while Wurzbach suggests Loos in Berlin, a search of their product catalog from a little over a decade later reveals no such instance of its availability for collectors, nor does it display an artist's signature or mint (LOOS) reference—both of which would be highly unusual for a Loos-made product of the era. As such, it is of the opinion of this cataloger that, despite possessing the "feel" of a Loos medal, it is not one from their output. As recounted by Kraljevich in the Ford catalog: “The boundary dispute between America and Great Britain over the land and water boundaries between Maine and Canada took nearly a century and a half to settle. The treaty of Paris (1783) fixed the north-east boundary of the United States along the middle of the St. Croix River "from its mouth in the bay of Fundy to its source" and "due north from the source of St. Croix river to the highlands; along the said highlands which divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean, to the north-westernmost head of Connecticut river; thence down along the middle of that river to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude." The vagueness of the description was the cause of the dispute. The various attempts to resolve the dispute include Jay's Treaty (1794), the Commission of 1798, the Treaty of Ghent (1814), commissions under Ghent (1816 and 1822), the Convention of 1827 setting up the King of Netherlands as arbitrator (approved in 1829, the date of the medal), the king's decision (1831) rejected lending to the Aristook War (1838-39), and the Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842) which settled the land boundary issues. The water boundary problems persisted, however, leading to the conventions of 1892 and 1908, the Treaty of Washington (1910), and the second Treaty of Washington (1925) that finally settled the boundary."
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103503 | CUBA, UNITED STATES & SPAIN. End of the American Blockade aluminum Award Medal. Issued 1898, but never disbursed (35mm, 6.72 g, 12h). By Antonio Jiménez. AYUNTAMINETO DE LA HABANA. AÑO. 1898., personification of Havana standing facing with five children at her side and resting hand upon shield; costal scene in background // RECUERDO DEL BLOQUEO DE LA ISLA DE CUBA / 21 DE ABRIL AL 12 DE AGOSTO, view of Havana Harbor, with Morro Fortress to left, the city in background, and ships upon the harbor in foreground. Edge: Loop as made attached at top, otherwise plain. Gem Mint State. Extremely vibrant and mirrored. A rare and virtually unseen medal within the market. Following increased tensions in Cuba among some of her freedom-seeking populace and her colonial power, Spain, then-president of the United States, William McKinley, sent a battleship to the neighboring island in order to provide protection for American citizens based there. Under mysterious circumstances, the battleship, the USS Maine, suffered an explosion and sank. The American Congress then approved the use of military force to intervene, with a US blockade of Havana harbor ensuing on 21 April 1898. Throughout the spring and summer, the blockade continued, with little actual engagement. It eventually ended when the American fleet departed the harbor for the port of Santiago de Cuba, where Admiral Cervera's Spanish squadron had arrived. It was hastily at this time that Spanish authorities in Havana came up with the idea for this medal to be presented to the citizens there who had endured the blockade. The medals, however, were never to be presented, as Spain was not successful in the campaign (the Spanish-American War), with these medals seemingly impounded and long forgotten. For more information on this medal, please see this article.
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103511 | FRANCE. Electrical Construction Union silver Award Medal. Issued circa 1925-1935, and engraved and awarded to Lucien Pinard (67mm, 111.99 g [ASW = 3.2406 oz], 12h). By Charles Pillet at the Paris mint. Female personification of Electricity, nude except for billowing drapery, soaring left among the clouds and hurling thunderbolt // SYNDICAT · GENERAL · DE LA · CONSTRUCTION · ELECTRIQUE ·, view of hydroelectric power plant in nature; below, shield with panel engraved "M. LUCIEN PINARD." Edge: «cornucopia» 2 ARGENT. MdP –; Maier –; Silich –; cf. Musée d'Orsay RF MO MEDOR 2018 2 (for obv.). Mint State. Pleasing gunmetal gray surfaces, with some darker areas for contrast around some of the devices, and with some light rub noted upon the highest points. An enticing design and a rare type in silver. The Syndicat Général de la Construction Électrique awarded medals like these to employees following years of service, usually in the amount of 25 or 30 years, with the silver issues being the more prestigious with respect to time served to the company. Pillet's classic design is the earlier of the two Art Deco renderings for this award (with the latter being that of Pelletier).
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Leda left, with knee set upon draped base, being seduced by swan to left // Blank. Edge: 1988 «cornucopia» BRONZE. Cf. Maier 313 (for original); cf. MdP 3, 228c (same). Gem Mint State. Tan-bronze surfaces, with great glossiness. An enticing reissue of this classical and immensely exceptional Art Deco design originally issued in the early 1920s. An iconic mythological scene represented since antiquity in various sculptures and paintings, and one which Lavrillier has portrayed here in the Art Deco form of his time. It portrays a wondrous, erotic dance between Leda (a mortal) and a swan (Zeus, the king of the gods, in disguise).
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