1737 Bronze Medal Betts-170

Coin Details

Description

This 1737 bronze medal, Betts-170, documents colonial affairs during the late 1730s, a period of relative peace between major European colonial conflicts. The decade between the end of King George's War preparations and the outbreak of the War of Jenkins' Ear (1739) saw continued colonial development by all European powers in the Americas. Britain expanded its colonial settlements along the Atlantic seaboard, France developed Louisiana and strengthened its alliances with Native American nations, and Spain maintained its vast but increasingly vulnerable empire from Mexico to Patagonia. Colonial-era medals were produced at royal mints, private workshops, and jewelers' studios across Europe, with production quality ranging from masterfully engraved official issues to crudely cast provincial pieces. The medal captures this brief interlude before the renewal of colonial warfare that would dominate the 1740s and beyond.

Rarity Notes

Rare. Medals from the peaceful late 1730s are less common than wartime issues.

Cross References

Betts-170