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Boston Town Medal

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in American School Medals (currently in collection)

1821. Sallay C-1. Silver, hand engraved. Hexagonal, with extension above, 39.9mm × 37.0mm, 12.7 grams, with ring for suspension. Obverse: TOWN MEDAL FOR FEMALES (in two lines, curving around) Instituted by the SCHOOL COMMITTEE BOSTON 1821 (in four lines below). Reverse: MERITED (curving around) BY Phebe W. Mallen FOR SUPERIOR SCHOLARSHIP A.D. MDCCCXXI. Extremely rare, as it was issued for only one year.

Provenance:

Alan Weinberg
Maurice Gould
Woodward collection

Franklin’s will explicitly said that these medals were to be given to the best boys, but by 1821 this was considered unfair to the girls then also attending the public schools. Although only boys went to school at the time Franklin made his will and the Committee might have reasoned that he really meant that the medals were intended for all of the “children” who attended the schools, they decided to create a separate series of award medals for the girls. The first year of these say “Town Medal”, but Boston became a city in 1822, so after the first year these medals read “City Medal”.

Item record created Oct. 12, 2008.
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item record in VRA Core 4.0