Q: What can you tell us about the Comitia Americana set of silver medals and the unique gold Manly medal in the collection?

A: The Washington-Webster set very nearly didn't survive to be delivered to Washington. When Jefferson brought this case of 11 medals to the U.S. in 1789, Jefferson disembarked, leaving his crates for unlading. The ship caught fire and burned to the water-line but the thick wooden crates and dense packing helped the medals survive. After Washington's death, a family member bought them and pawned them after the Civil War. Daniel Webster bought them, and left them to his grandson, who later pawned them to W. Elliot Woodward, who stored them in Boston's Boylston National Bank. Master thief Adam Worth cleared out the vault on November 21, 1869, and escaped to Europe. Fortunately a bank employee had moved the set to an inner vault, untouched by Worth. Webster's friend, Peter Harvey, bought the set from Woodward and donated them to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1874.

The gold Manly medal came to the MHS in William Sumner Appleton, Sr.'s magnificent collection of Washingtoniana and other medals in 1905. He had possibly just acquired it when he displayed it here in 1875, according to the Boston Daily Globe of May 15:

It is still considered unique in gold and is handsome indeed.

For more information on the Colonial Coin Collectors Club, see:
https://colonialcoins.org/