1888 Assay Commission Medal - JK-AC-31, Bronze, Grover Cleveland

Coin Details

Auction Record

$2,040 SP67BN 08-23-2024 Stack's Bowers

Description

The 1888 Assay Commission medal JK-AC-31 in bronze features the third Grover Cleveland portrait, struck during the final year of his first term. Cleveland would lose the 1888 presidential election to Benjamin Harrison despite winning the popular vote, setting the stage for his unprecedented return to the presidency four years later. The 1888 medal thus captures Cleveland at the end of an era, before his temporary departure from office. The monetary landscape of 1888 was dominated by the continued accumulation of silver dollars under the Bland-Allison Act. The Treasury vaults were filling with largely unwanted silver coins, creating a fiscal management challenge that would intensify under the incoming Harrison administration. The Assay Commission's verification that these accumulating silver dollars met statutory fineness standards was more a matter of institutional routine than practical necessity, as the coins were rarely entering circulation. JK-AC-31 in bronze concludes the first Cleveland sequence in the Assay Commission series with a medal that, in retrospect, marks only a pause rather than an ending. Cleveland's return to the presidency and the Assay Commission medal in 1893 would create a unique phenomenon in the series: the same President appearing in two non-consecutive groups.

Rarity Notes

JK-AC-31 (1888) in bronze (AE). Third "Grover Cleveland" portrait, ending the first Cleveland sequence.

Cross References

PCGS #512355; JK-AC-31; 1888 Assay Commission