(1720) Bronze Medal Betts-144, Louisbourg

Coin Details

Auction Record

$4,560 MS63BN 08-24-2023 Stack's Bowers

Description

This bronze medal, Betts-144, commemorates the founding or early development of Louisbourg around 1720. The fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island was one of the most ambitious military construction projects in colonial North America. Following France's loss of mainland Nova Scotia at the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Louisbourg was designed to protect the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, guard the valuable cod fisheries, and serve as a base for French naval operations in the North Atlantic. The iconographic vocabulary of colonial medals drew heavily on classical mythology and allegory, with figures representing continents, rivers, virtues, and vices arranged in compositions that conveyed complex political messages. The massive fortifications, modeled on the work of the great French military engineer Vauban, took decades to complete and cost the French crown enormous sums, earning Louisbourg the nickname "the Dunkirk of the North."

Rarity Notes

Rare. Medals documenting Louisbourg founding period.

Cross References

Betts-144