102700 | UNITED STATES & GERMANY. Visit of Prince Heinrich silver Medal.

102700  |  UNITED STATES & GERMANY. Visit of Prince Heinrich of Prussia silver Medal. Issued 1902. American Numismatic Society series (69mm, 123.59 g, 12h). By V. D. Brenner for Tiffany and Co.

 

• ISSVED • BY • THE • AMERICAN • NVMISMATIC • AND • ARCHÆOLOGICAL • SOCIETY • / NEW • YORK • FEBRVARY • 1902, uniformed bust left // • TO • COMMEMORATE • THE • VISIT • OF • HIS • ROYAL • HIGHNESS • PRINCE • HENRY • OF • PRVSSIA, seminude figure of Hermes/Mercury facing among the clouds, head left, wearing petasus and holding bouquet of flowers and caduceus; shields of Germany and the United States to right. Edge: Plain.

 

ANS 14; Baxter 123; Marqusee 89; Smedley 43. Choice Mint State. Gunmetal gray surfaces, with an enticing matte nature and some deeper color accentuating the devices and peripheries. Includes original box of issue. One of Brenner's more alluring issues, not often encountered so attractive, and almost never with the original box. A similar example without the box realized a total of $690 in the Stack's Philadelphia Americana auction (23 September 2009), lot 7796, while one with the box, though described as "in so-so condition," realized a total of $546.25 over 16 years ago in Heritage's Long Beach auction 427 (28 September 2007), lot 82253.

 

Issued just over a decade before the outbreak of World War I, when relations between Germany and the United States began to deteriorate quite severely, this medal conveys the camaraderie enjoyed at the time by the two nations. Prince Heinrich, the younger brother of Kaiser Wilhelm II, was received in America, having delivered a schooner yacht in the place of his brother. The yacht was subsequently christened as the Meteor III on 25 February 1902 by Alice Roosevelt, the eldest child of President Theodore Roosevelt. The Russian (now Lithuanian)-born Brenner, already an accomplished sculptor/engraver, underwrote the project, allowing the ANS to sell as many pieces in silver as possible in a fundraising effort. Just 300 were issued in silver, with the original boxes from Tiffany almost never available. Seven years later, Brenner would realize the numismatic fame which he now enjoys, as he sculpted the Lincoln penny–the obverse of which is still in use today.

 

Upload: 15 January 2024.

 

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