My last article featured the “Montreal Taken “ medal,struck in 1760 to represent the culmination of the British military campaigns against the French in the conquest of Canada. It is, and has always been, one of my favourite all time medals. It was part of a series sponsored and promoted by the “Society Promoting Arts and Commerce” celebrating the British successes during the Seven Years’ War. The example in silver, which is very rare, belongs to Michael Joffre, of Montreal, a long time dealer and numismatist, whose collection of Canadian historical medals was sold by Geoffrey Bell auctions at the Toronto Coin Expo on April 28th of this year. The silver medal was one of only two lots of the almost 400 lot auction that did not sell, after no bidder would start the lot at $15,000 before buyers premium and taxes. The auction was a landmark sale for Canadian medals and the catalog will become a valuable reference for years to come.
My friend and colleague, Jacob Lipson, of Ottawa has recently purchased a bronze example ( pictured here), which will soon be up on his website at jacoblipsonrarecoins.com.
This will be my final submission of “For what it’s worth “. I would like to thank Sandy Neilly and “The Wayback Times “ for all the support and inspiration and wish them well in the future. I would also like to thank you, the readers, for all your questions and appreciation over the years. Please feel free to continue to send me photos and queries. I will continue to attend coin shows in southern Ontario and look forward to meeting you soon. Please stay safe and be well. Happy hunting!!
