NEW BOOK: 18MM MEDALETS OF THE US MINT

18 mm Medalets of the US Mint, William H. Key, and George B. Soley: An Illustrated Reference
by Jonathan Brecher

The ultimate illustrated identification guide to 18 mm US Mint medalets and their die pairings to Civil War tokens and Centennial Exposition medalets (1830s–1880s).

Dive into the fascinating world of 19th-century American numismatics. 18 mm Medalets of the US Mint, William H. Key, and George B. Soley: An Illustrated Reference is a comprehensive catalog designed for collectors, historians, and professional dealers alike.

In the mid-1800s, the United States Mint—alongside celebrated private engravers like William H. Key and George B. Soley—produced a series of small, 18-millimeter political medalets, campaign tokens, and store cards. While earlier catalogers on specific topical areas, this reference proudly steps into the gaps. By analyzing decades of auction history and historic archives, author Jonathan Brecher unlocks a dense web of previously unlisted, rare, and complex die pairings.

Whether you are trying to identify a minor variety of a US Mint medalet, differentiate an unsigned Lincoln or Grant die, or cross-reference related historical campaign pieces for Lincoln, Jackson, or McClellan, this guide provides the framework needed to evaluate these die pairings.

Key Features & What's Inside:

• Comprehensive Die Cataloging: Detailed breakdowns of over 160 medalets produced from approximately 90 distinct obverse or reverse dies.
• Design Family Breakdowns: Dedicated sections evaluating portrait busts of historic American figures, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Andrew Jackson, and George B. McClellan.
• Advanced Variety Attribution: A clear decimal numbering system built to easily identify major design types and minor die varieties.
• Correcting Numismatic History: Critical analysis evaluates 150 years of auction catalogs to flag doubtful or erroneously listed pieces, helping collectors avoid phantom varieties.
• Exhaustive Cross-Referencing: Essential lookup tables for Julian, Musante, Baker, DeWitt, Cunningham, King, Abler, Rulau, and Fuld identifiers.

Perfect for the specialized token collector or any lover of American political history, this illustrated reference is an indispensable addition to your numismatic library.

The US Mint first produced 18 mm presidential medals before 1860, using designs commemorating Andrew Jackson and George Washington. Production expanded during and after the Civil War, driven by interest in Washingtonia and by the desire to commemorate President Abraham Lincoln after his assassination. Even more pieces were produced outside the Mint during the US Centennial celebration of 1876.

Many of these small medals, or medalets, are already familiar to collectors through catalogs of Washington pieces, Lincoln pieces, Civil War tokens, presidential campaign medals, US Mint medals, and US Centennial medals. Others fall outside those established categories. Auction listings frequently describe additional pieces as variants of cataloged varieties or as unlisted varieties entirely.

Contemporary records are scarce, often limited to an occasional note in an auction catalog. US Mint records are fragmentary and unclear. For those reasons, this catalog relies primarily on die evidence. When the medalets are grouped by the dies that struck them, four production groups emerge:

• Presidential medalets produced mainly at the US Mint
• Civil War tokens and presidential medalets produced by William H. Key
• US Centennial medalets produced by William H. Key
• Presidential and US Centennial medalets produced by George B. Soley

Anthony C. Paquet's dies connect all four production groups. Paquet engraved several medalet dies while he was employed at the US Mint from 1857 to 1864. Some of those dies were later paired with non-Mint dies, including several with subjects that postdate his departure from the Mint. One plausible explanation is that Paquet took five dies with him when he left and later shared them with others, including Soley, Key, and possibly John H. Diehl, who is known to have struck medalets for both Soley and Key.

Paquet signed several of these mixed-use dies, and he may have engraved others. None of the medalets produced by Soley or Key are paired with any other US Mint dies. Aside from the Paquet-associated dies that cross production boundaries, the four production groups share no other dies.

For more information, or to order, see:
18 mm Medalets of the US Mint, William H. Key, and George B. Soley: An Illustrated Reference (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HCRG55WR)

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