September 8, 2012: Washingtonia was the topic of this year's gathering of the colonial coin elite at Rodger Siboni's home in New Jersey. New finds and discoveries were presented and some significant collections of Washingtonia were displayed. The highlight, in my opinion, was a New Jersey collector's set of Washington inaugural buttons, in a condition that had been previously thought to be impossible.

This annual event always attracts some of the most knowledgeable authorities on colonial coins. It was the perfect venue to present the results of my research on the new die emission sequence for the Washington Before Boston Medal. I knew that I could count on constructive criticism and thoughtful evaluation of my evidence. Combining my research on the Paris Mint, my knowledge of colonial coins and my newly acquired skills with a digital camera, I looked at the Washington Before Boston medals with a fresh perspective. Additional information and the results of my analysis will be published in a different forum, but the immediate access to information available online allows me to share the summary with other numismatists. Surprisingly, we have waited for correct information on this topic for a longer period than the 14 years George Washington had to wait for the medal that the Continental Congress awarded to him in 1776.

Information about the history of the Washington Before Boston medal is available in several reference books, but the most thorough and recent source is Comitia Americana and Related Medals by John W. Adams and Anne E. Bentley, published by George Frederick Kolbe in 2007. This book is a wonderful piece of scholarship and contains important primary source information about all ten of the medals that were awarded by the Continental Congress.

To read the complete blog post, see:Die Varieties of the "Washington Before Boston" Medal(donaldscarinci.com/die-varieties-of-the-washington-before-boston-medal/)

Don Scarinci writes:

Curious to know if this work is an updating of Glenn A. Mooney's 1976 study,Don Scarinci adds: