Indian Peace Medal - 1877 Rutherford B. Hayes, J-IP-43 AE Oval NGC MS67 - Tied for Finest-!

Attractive bronze restrike of Hayes Indian Peace Medal from 1877. There are 2 in MS67BN with none finer. Below is the story of the creation of the original IPMs of 1877.

The creation of the Rutherford B. Hayes medal initiated a new series of Indian Peace Medals. The round shape of previous medals was replaced by an oval shape that measured 76 by 60 mm. As with the Grant medal, there was only one size produced. From this time onward, creating Indian Peace Medals -- both the design and execution -- became part and parcel of the responsibilities of the US Mint in Philadelphia. Sometimes the Indian Office was not involved in any aspect of the process of creating or distributing them. After the Hayes medal was produced, no medals were ordered for presentation to Indian chiefs. It was a year and a quarter after Hayes' inauguration, in June of 1878, that Mint Director H.R. Linderman  wrote to John Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury, to make arrangement to create the Hayes' medal. He told the Secretary that the Mint already had created a die for a presidential medal that had an "excellent profile likeness of the President," which could be reduced for use in the Indian medal. Only a new reverse die would need to be crafted. Linderman wrote, "All the work can be done at the Philadelphia Mint without interfering with its operations, and without charge. The only funds that would be necessary would be such an amount as might be required to pay for the silver..."

Rutherford B. Hayes in his Union Civil War uniform in 1861.

The engraver of both sides of the medal was George T. Morgan, assistant engraver at the Mint. "This reverse," writes Francis Paul Prucha, "...was another symbolic presentation of the progress of the Indian toward civilization. At the top was the word PEACE, with rays radiating from the date 1877. In the center a pioneer farmer conversed with an Indian in native costume. The farmer held an ax and in the background appeared a log house, a woman with a baby sitting in front, and in the distance a man plowing. At the bottom was an olive or laurel wreath entwining a crossed peacepipe and tomahawk." However, before Morgan's dies could be used to produce medals for Indians, Hayes was about to leave his office. If work had begun on them sooner, and work progressed more efficiently, Hayes' medals would have been produced, because there was a desire for them before he ended his term. A request came from W.D.E. Andrus, the Indian Agent at the Yankton Agency in Dakota Territory. He needed the medals because they were promised to Chief Strike-the-Ree and a group of his warriors who prevented the Yanktons from joining up with the warlike Sioux, as well as for convincing tribe members to forgo the hunt and become farmers. But when the request reached the Indian Office, that office wanted medals that presented the image of the new president, James Garfield.