1878 HK-120c, Wyoming Massacre Centennial Dollar

Coin Details

Auction Record

Description

The official record of the Wyoming centennial of 1878 says the medals were meant to be handed out as awards at regattas and for the top displays mounted by civic or military associations. A note in the American Journal of Numismatics tells a different story for the gold pieces, which it says were made as gifts for Mrs. Hayes, wife of the President, among others. HK-120c is the gilt copper striking, 36 mm, of the same design: on the obverse the massacre in a center circle, with the battle and its date of July 3, 1778, named around it, and on the reverse the memorial monument in its fenced grounds between 1778 and 1878, ringed by a Latin motto taken from Horace. George Morgan designed and cut the dies and attested in July 1878 that they had been broken. The other metals run from bronzed copper (HK-120) to white metal (HK-121).

Cross References

HK-120c; PCGS #642310; NGC #851815