Owner Comments:
GILT BRONZE GEM UNCIRCULATED MEDAL COMMEMORATING THE BICENTENNIAL OF THE CITY OF ALBANY, NY. DIES FOR THIS MEDAL BY GEORGE H. LOVETT.
THERE IS NO CENSUS KEPT BY NGC WITH A TALLY OF THESE MEDALS. I HAVE SEEN OTHER EXAMPLES OF THIS MEDAL TYPE IN WHITE METAL, BRONZE, AND BRONZED WHITE METAL. I HAVE PERSONALLY NEVER SEEN ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THIS TYPE IN GILT BRONZE, GRADED OR UNGRADED.
THIS BICENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF ALBANY, NY IS ALSO COMMEMORATED WITH SO-CALLED DOLLARS HK-601 THROUGH HK-603.
EXERPT FROM DAVE BALDWIN'S WEBSITE DEVOTED TO LOVETT TOKENS AND MEDALS:
The celebration for the Bicentennial of Albany New York must have been quite the event! Two large format programs were published, several medals (including those by George H.) were struck, and a 461 page volume ("Albany Bicentennial, Historical Memoirs" by A. Bleeker Banks) was published in 1888. The medals by George H. I am going to assume were the official medals for the celebration because of the following excerpt from page 63 this book - "The Committee on Medals presented the design that had been adopted. The scene represents Governor Dongan seated at his desk with Livingston at his right and Schuyler at his left, and is founded on the statement of the initial pages of our city records that Livingston and Schuyler went to New York for the city charter. Livingston was the son of a Scotch minister and was then about thirty years of age. He is represented in Puritanical dress. Schuyler is attired in military costume. Dongan's hat and sword hang on the wall near the old-fashioned clock. The seal of the city and the inscription "In memory of the two hundredth anniversary of the city of Albany, N. Y., 1886," are represented on the other side. They recommended that the medals be put on sale, the white metal for twenty-five cents and the bronze for one dollar each."
The following quote is from page 426 of A. Bleeker Banks' book on the celebration and list the composition and number of medals struck for the celebration -
"The number of medals struck from the die, which was defaced on the 22nd day of July, 1886, is as follows: Ten gold medals; eight silver medals; thirty six in bronze, gilded with a Florentine finish; thirteen hundred in bronze, and eleven thousand in white metal. The medals thus described were one-eighth of an inch in thickness.
A few, three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness, were issued as follows: one in copper, three in bronze and thirty-six in bronze struck up in gold." There is some discrepancy between this listing and pieces I have seen, especially the thickness.
THIS MEDAL MEASURES 5 MM (3/16 INCH) THICK, SO IT APPEARS TO BE ONE OF ONLY 36 MADE IN "BRONZE STRUCK UP IN GOLD" AS PER THE ABOVE PARAGRAPH.