Medal (Peace medal)

Description

This silver medal bears the profile of George II of England and pictorial imagery created by the Religious Society of Friends on the opposite side. It is a rare and atypical colonial American peace medal created by deliberately defacing a colonial Spanish silver coin (eight Reales) to make a blank planchet, then striking it into newly cut dies for the purpose of exchange and diplomacy with Native American leaders. Although difficult to see, the motto LET US LOOK TO THE MOST HIGH WHO BLESSED OUR FATHERS WITH PEACE originally encircled the image of a seated Native American man beneath a multi-rayed sun and a seated Anglo-American man in a Quaker hat next to a tree with both facing inward to a blazing fire. The upraised smoking pipe held by the Quaker man and the date of 1757 confirm the medal’s purpose was for presentation to Native American leaders of the Delaware River region involved in negotiating land, peace, and trade arrangements with colonists. The Treaty of Easton, begun in 1757, involved councils, meals, dance and official gifts of belts and strings of wampum. Delegates from the Religious Society of Friends participated in the treaty conferences. Among the gifts offered were these Philadelphia-created silver medals drilled to be worn like gorgets and pendants.