- Collection - Presidential & Indian Peace Medals
1817 James Monroe

Owner Comments:

After the delays experienced by the preceding Madison medals, the work for President James Monroe went rather smoothly. As John Reich was not available to do the work because of his poor eyesight, Moritz Furst was hired by John Vaughan, who again superintended the entire project for the Office of Indian Affairs.
Furst, who went to Washington in the latter part of 1818 to model the president, began to cut the dies by the end of that year and finished-the three sizes—obverses only since the old reverses by Reich were still to be used—early in
1819. The artist was paid $1000 for`the dies and his expenses in going to Washington.
After 1860 only the largest of the three Monroe medals was usually sold to collectors although occasionally the other sizes were produced. A medal dating from about 1885 in the West Point collection has a missing left serif of T in FURST and probably marks the original obverse die for the 76 mm size.
Engraver: Moritz Furst (obv) and John Reich (rev).