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Lr 300 — France Louis XIV Dynastic Medal. 1693. Copper.

Currency:CAD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:2,250.00 CAD Estimated At:7,500.00 - 8,000.00 CAD
Lr 300 — France Louis XIV Dynastic Medal. 1693. Copper.
SOLD
3,800.00CAD+ buyer's premium (760.00)
This item SOLD at 2022 Apr 28 @ 18:02UTC-4 : AST/EDT

Buyer’s Premiums will be added on all items as per the Terms & Conditions of the sale. Invoices will be emailed out after all sessions of the Toronto Coin Expo Spring Sale have concluded.

Betts-75. Breton-1. 75.5mm. 175.5g. Plain edge. SIGNED H. ROUSSEL. The French medals of Louis XIV dated 1693, bearing on one side a portrait of the king and on the other those of the Duc de Berry and his three sons, were the first medals awarded by any colonial power in Canada to its Indigenous allies for diplomatic purposes. Writing in Medals Awarded to the Canadian Indians (1899), R.W. McLachlan enumerates the reasons Indian peace medals were presented:

1. As a means for Indigenous peoples to make their allegiances known.
2. As a way to connect Indigenous peoples to the interests of the colony.
3. As “a reward for services rendered.”
4. To “secure the services or the neutrality of the Indians in a war about to be declared or actually in progress.”
5. As a reward for valour.
6. Eventually, as evidence that treaties had been signed.

Contemporary documentation proves beyond any doubt that medals bearing this date and design were distributed to Indigenous chiefs. In 1877, Professor Charles E. Anthon cited a letter from “Mother Mary of Saint Helena, hospital-nun of the Hotel-Dieu in Quebec, dated October 17, 1723,” which was originally published by Reverend A.H. Verreau in the Canadian Review issue of February 1875. Professor Anthon provided the following translation:

“(After mentioning Indians) King Louis XIV had sent silver medals of considerable size, on one side of which was his portrait, and on the other that of the dauphin, his son, and of the three princes, children of the latter, to be given to those who should distinguish themselves in war. To them has since been attached a flame-coloured ribbon, four liners in breadth, and the whole decoration is highly prized among them. …. When any chief dies, he is honourably buried; a detachment of troops parades, several volleys of musketry are fired over his grave, and on his coffin are laid a sword crossed with its scabbard and the medal under consideration fastened upon them.”

Additionally, in an article published in the July 1995 issue of The Colonial Newsletter, John W. Adams documents two examples in gold having been presented to two young Abenakis, the sons of “the principal chiefs of the Kennebec and Penobscot Abenaki’s,” who traveled to Versailles to receive them as gifts for loyalty.
Today, Lr. 300, Betts-75 is known in copper, silver, and gold. Those in copper and silver are extremely rare; nearly all have been lost to either burial, confiscation, or melting over the past three centuries. The gold example is unique in private hands. Another forms part of the Bibliotèque Nationale collection in Paris. While different dies are known for examples of this medal struck in smaller diameters (60mm, 41mm, 36mm), those struck in this large-size format are all from the same dies and signed H. ROUSSEL, including the gold example presented to one of the two young Abenakis.
This copper medal is from those original dies, and the rounded rims are clearly contemporary to the 1693 date. Both the dies and the rims show small chips and breaks, as expected and as seen on other known examples. The surfaces exhibit partial glossiness and mahogany-brown patina with a predictable number of small abrasions. This is an extraordinarily important Indian peace medal.
From the Michael Joffre Collection of Canadian Historical Medals.
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