Some beautiful medals found new homes at Heritage’s and Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ auctions held as official partners of the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money.

In Stack’s Bowers’ Rarities Night session Aug. 13, an original silver Libertas Americana medal made in 1783 and graded Mint State 64+ by Professional Coin Grading Service, with a green Certified Acceptance Corp. sticker, realized $336,000.

The cataloger called it “an outstanding example of a classic early American medal, expertly preserved, profoundly original, and with exceptionally vivid toning that is rarely seen in silver impressions of this type.” The medal is iconic in that Augustin Dupré’s Liberty with flowing hair directly influenced the first coin designs of the U.S. Mint. It is the finest-certified at PCGS, with the cataloger noting that it is fresh to the modern market and the finest of the known silver Libertas Americana medals. The price bested the $198,000 that a handsome silver example graded MS-63+ realized at a June 2022 Stack’s Bowers sale.

Another silver Libertas Americana medal in the session, graded About Uncirculated 53 by PCGS and carrying a green CAC sticker, sold for $84,000.

Heritage’s post-ANA sessions offered two bronze representatives of the medal: one in PCGS MS-64 brown sold for $54,000, while another graded MS-62 brown by Numismatic Guaranty Co. realized $33,600.

The medals are also coveted for their close connection to Benjamin Franklin. The Smithsonian Institution explains, “While stationed in France during the American Revolutionary War, Franklin received a detailed account of the Yorktown victory and was soon tasked to create a monument in its honor. Franklin responded with a proposal for a medal, rather than a monument, in which the United States would be depicted as the infant Hercules in cradle, strangling the two serpents sent by Hera; above him France personified as Athena (Minerva) would act as his nurse and mentor.”

Gold Nobel Prize medal

Heritage registered success in the $192,000 that the NGC MS-67 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine gold medal awarded to Harald zur Hausen realized at its Aug. 15 World and Ancient Coins Platinum Night session. The prize in Physiology or Medicine was divided in 2008, one half of it awarded to Zur Hausen for his discovery of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer. The other half went to Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier “for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus.”

As the Nobel organization explains, “Zur Hausen demonstrated in 1983 that cervical cancer in humans is caused by certain types of papilloma viruses (wart viruses), the genes from which are incorporated into the host cells’ DNA. This discovery made it possible to develop a vaccine against cervical cancer, which had been the second most common tumor disease in women.”  

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