Huge Gold Rush congressional medal resurfaces
WOLFEBORO, N.H. --When Zachary Taylor became president in 1849, he was a genuine war hero, thanks to his exploits during the Mexican War.
The country said "thanks" three times, with Congressional Gold Medals.
The last, made from some of the first gold sent east from the California gold fields, was presented after Taylor became president, but it disappeared when Taylor died a year later. Over the years, experts doubted it would ever be seen again, and some even speculated it had been melted down.
It turned out the medal, double the size of a silver dollar, had been kept quietly by Taylor's descendants in Lousiana, until now.
"This is an important discovery because researchers assumed it was lost or even melted during one of the financial panics that gripped the United States since the mid-19th century," said Q. David Bowers, of New Hampshire-based American Numismatic Rarities/Stack's.
"We'll need to update the reference books," he said.
The company researched the medal, is putting it on display this week in Atlanta and is offering it for auction next month in Baltimore.
"It contains over a pound of gold from the first shipment of California Gold Rush nuggets to reach the U.S. Mint," said Bowers.
He said the 20-ounce medal is the largest Congressional Gold Medal in private hands, along with the silver box in which it was presented to Taylor. It was the largest presented at the time, even larger than the medal Congress gave George Washington.
Congress authorized the medal in 1848 to recognize then-Maj. Gen. Taylor.
"Its huge size was undoubtedly recognition of the enormous new wealth of gold the nation owned from the annexation of California," said the Wolfeboro company's researcher, John Kraljevich Jr.
The front shows a profile of Taylor and the back shows a scene from the 1847 Battle of Buena Vista. The commendation that accompanied the medal praised Taylor, outnumbered four to one, for turning back Mexican Gen. Santa Anna's army.
The medal goes on display at the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Atlanta Expo, October 5-7, and will be auctioned, perhaps for more than $100,000, in Baltimore next month, Bowers said.
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