A medal from the Revolutionary War that was thought to be lost forever recently turned up at an auction. The auction house had asked John Kraljevech, a numismatist from Fort Mill, South Carolina, to authenticate a solid gold medal in a red leather United States Mint case.
When he opened the box, his jaw dropped in disbelief. It was the original Daniel Morgan at Cowpens Medal struck by the Philadelphia Mint in 1839. The medal was for Revolutionary War hero Daniel Morgan.
One side of the medal features Morgan leading his troops. The other shows him accepting a crown from a Native American woman.
“Its appearance represents the most shocking and important discovery in American numismatics in years,” Kraljevech said.
The medal disappeared in 1885, but an anonymous owner consigned the medal to Stack’s Bowers Galleries in Costa Mesa, California. It was estimated to sell for $250,000 to $500,000. It was actually sold for a shocking $960,000.
Daniel Morgan was a Revolutionary War general. In January 1781, he led his troops against the British in South Carolina.
Morgan unexpectedly won the Battle of Cowpens, which was named after the pasture where it took place. The victory proved to be a turning point in the war.
The Continental Congress decided to award Morgan with a medal in his honor. It was designed in France by Augustin Dupré.
Thomas Jefferson carried it back to the U.S. with him upon his return from Paris in September 1789 to serve as the first secretary of state.
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George Washington presented the medal to Morgan himself on March 25, 1790. At the time, Morgan was living in Winchester, Virginia. When he died in 1802, he left the medal to his son-in-law. He passed it on to his son, Morgan Lafayette Neville.
Neville kept the medal at Pittsburgh’s Farmers and Mechanics Bank, but the family heirloom was lost in 1818 when bank robbers stole the medal. Neville was determined to get the medal back.
He even wrote to Thomas Jefferson and petitioned the U.S. Congress for a replacement medal. Congress agreed to replace the medal in 1835.
Sadly, Neville would not live to see it. The replacement medal was produced in 1839 and given to his family in 1841.
For almost 50 years, the Daniel Morgan Medal stayed in the family. But around 1885, it was purchased by J.P. Morgan, who falsely believed he was related to the general. Afterward, it vanished for 137 years until Stack’s Bowers Galleries came into possession of it.
“While Morgan Neville didn’t live long enough to hold that golden victory in his hand, we can. It remains a uniquely American prize, with a backstory fit for the cinema,” wrote the auction house.
