Indian Peace Medal - 1841 John Tyler, J-IP-21 Second Reverse AE 76mm NGC MS63

John Tyler Indian Peace Medals

It was Mint Director Robert M. Patterson who initiated the production of the John Tyler IPMs. He did not contact the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, but wrote directly to the Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun. It is not known why Patterson ignored that office, but he corresponded solely with Spencer for almost a year. Perhaps it was Patterson's enthusiasm for new technology that the Mint had acquired. On November 2, 1841, he wrote to Spencer: "I now propose...to dispense entirely with the services of a die sinker...[A] medallion likeness of the president must be modeled in wax or clay, on a table four inches in diameter....A plaster cast from this model is used as a pattern for a casting in fine iron....The casting is then placed in an instrument called a portrait lathe (...which I caused to be made at Paris), and reduced fac-similies of it are turned by the lathe, thus preparing for us the dies which we need."

Patterson told Spencer that using the portrait lathe would save money. "The last Indian Medal dies, which were the cheapest we have made, cost $1160; Mr. Peale, our chief coiner, is willing to undertake the execution of those for President Tyler, for $800." The artist Ferdinand Pettrich was hired to craft the image of Tyler on a medallion for use on the lathe. On January 26, 1842, Patterson received two such medallions: one in wax and the other in plaster of Paris. The artist was paid a paltry $50 for his work. Patterson received communication from T. Hartley Crawford, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, who told him of the Indian appropriation bill of $2,500 for production of medals to be distributed among chiefs and leading men of the Indian tribes. He also expressed his feeling over being left out of the communications between the Mint and the Secretary of War, that his office was not involved in the business of the medals. Crawford wrote, "It is proper to observe that this office has waited with some anxiety for a supply of medals, for occasional distribution, supposing they were in a state of forwardship, as the Indians generally properly prefer those having the likeness of the present chief magistrate."

Franklin Peale was now the Chief Coiner, and he sent the medals to Crawford. They arrived from December 22, 1842 to January 10, 1843. "The medals," wrote Crawford to Patterson, "have been inspected and meet the approbation of the President, Secretary of War & myself."

John Tyler and the Indians

It was a month after taking office that John Tyler signed a treaty with the Wyandat Nation, which took away their land in Ohio, which totaled around 109,000 acres. The Wyandat received 148,000 acres west of the Mississippi and $17,500 a year in return for their native lands. Tyler also signed land cession treaties with the Chippewa, Seneca, Sac and Fox Indians.

Tyler contended with the Seminoles in Florida in the Second Seminole War (1835-1842); he was the fourth president to deal with it, and it is considered among the most costly Indian wars in US history. By the end of the war, over $40 million had been spent and over 3,000 Seminoles had been transported West. December 1841 saw Tyler explain his Seminole policy. He wanted "untiring activity and zeal" in the war and said that those Indians "have been captured, and still greater numbers have surrendered and have been transported to join their brethren on the lands elsewhere allotted to them by the government."

At the war's end in August 1842 only around 300 Indians remained in Florida. Tyler later said that the "vexatious, harassing and expensive war" against the Florida Indians "has happily been terminated." In a message to Congress, he called for "parental vigilance" to help remaining Indians become civilized. In order to prevent future conflicts between white settlers and Indians in Florida, Congress passed an act to populate the land, as well as create a militia against the Seminoles. The Armed Occupation Act of 1842 provided 160 acres of land in Florida to settlers who were "able to bear arms" and who would cultivate land found within two miles of a permanent military post. Five months before leaving office, Tyler wrote a letter asking the army to "resort to all peaceful means to get the Indians remaining in Florida to migrate."

John Tyler Indian Peace Medals for Indians and Collectors

Dated 1841, all original Tyler IPMs were struck on solid silver planchets. They were produced in three sizes: 76 mm, 62 mm, and 51 mm. Heritage Auctions featured  a "Very Scarce Original Strike of the U.S. Mint John Tyler Indian Peace Medal in Bronze" in December of 2005. It sold for $776.75. It was the medium-sized medal (62 mm) and was graded uncirculated (and ungraded). The 62 mm size was struck by the Mint and sold to the public starting in 1861, however, by 1892 the larger size (76 mm) was the only one available to collectors.