(1859) Bronzed Copper Medal GW-257, Dickeson's Coin & Medal Safe

Coin Details

Auction Record

$264 MS62 08-22-2021 Heritage Auctions

Description

This bronzed copper medal cataloged as GW-257 advertises Dickeson's Coin and Medal Safe, produced circa 1859 by Montroville Wilson Dickeson, a prominent Philadelphia numismatist, archaeologist, and entrepreneur. Dickeson manufactured and sold coin storage cabinets — referred to as "safes" — to the growing community of American coin collectors. His advertising medals served dual purposes as both promotional pieces for his business and collectible Washington commemoratives. The bronzed finish — a deliberate darkening process applied to the copper surface — gives this piece the appearance of aged bronze and was considered more aesthetically refined than raw copper. Dickeson was a colorful figure in nineteenth-century American numismatics, known for his archaeological excavations of Native American mounds, his panorama painting of the Mississippi Valley, and his entrepreneurial approach to the coin collecting hobby. His coin safes and the advertising medals promoting them are now themselves prized collectibles documenting the commercialization of numismatics in antebellum America.

Rarity Notes

GW-257, bronzed copper. Dickeson advertising medal. Collected both as a Washington medal and as numismatic ephemera.

Cross References

PCGS #883448; GW-257; Dickeson Coin & Medal Safe, bronzed copper