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UNITED STATES: AE medal, 1779, Almost Unc to Unc.

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:400.00 USD Estimated At:500.00 - 600.00 USD
UNITED STATES:  AE medal, 1779, Almost Unc to Unc.
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UNITED STATES: AE medal, 1779, Betts-568, Julian NA-1, 57mm bronze plain-edged medal by Augustin Dupre for the Victory of Captain John Paul Jones in the Naval Battle of the USS Bonhomme Richard vs. HMS Serapis; JOANNI PAULO JONES CLASSIS PRAEFECTO around military bust of Jones right, COMITIA AMERICANA below, without designer's signature // HOSTIVM NAVIBVS CAPTIS AVT FVGATIS (The Enemy's Vessels Captured or Put to Flight) above Naval battle scene with Jones' converted merchantman, the Bonhomme Richard, with her side blasted open by an explosion in her magazine; lying along side is the British frigate, Serapis, in exergue: AD ORAM SCOTIAE XXIII SEPT. MDCCLXXVIIII (Off the Coast of Scotland, September 23, 1779), a lovely example with slightly prooflike fields, Almost Unc to Unc. The HMS Serapis was a Royal Navy two-decked, Roebuck-class fifth rate. The Serapis was named after the god Serapis in Greek and Egyptian mythology. The Americans captured her during the American War of Independence. They transferred her to the French, who commissioned her as a privateer. She was lost off Madagascar in 1781 to a fire. The U.S. Mint produced this medal design beginning in 1863, originally with dies hubbed from a Paris Mint medal. In 1870, those dies were replaced with new U.S. Mint dies, which lacked the French designer's name.