Lot 522
(Hawaii) Silver Royal Society's Captain Cook Memorial Medal - 1784. London, Royal Society, by Lewis Pingo, chief engraver of the Royal Mint.; Betts #553, M.H. #374, 42mm. Very fine. One of 291 struck. Showing a fine, left-facing bust of Captain James Cook, explorer, surveyor and globe circumnavigator, in Naval uniform. The legend around states: "Oceani Investigator Acerrimvs" [The Most Intrepid Investigator of the Seas]; the reverse shows the personified figure of Fortune holding a Naval rudder atop of a globe, with the legend: "Nil Intentatvm Nostri Liquere" [Our Men Have Left Nothing Un-attempted]. Cook was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society after he had twice circumnavigated the globe (1768-71 and 1772-75). He left on his third voyage in 1776 and was murdered by natives in the Sandwich Islands in 1779. The Royal Society issued this tribute medal in 1784 and struck 19 examples in gold, 291 in silver, of which this is one, and 574 bronzed copper medals. They sold for a guinea or two each. The gold specimen given to Cook's widow is now in the British Museum. The portrait was copied by John Flaxman when designing the well-known Wedgwood jasperware plaquette. The medal is illustrated by C. Wyllis Betts, American Colonial History, illustrated by Contemporary Medals, number 553.
Estimated Value $2,000 - 2,500.
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| Realized $2,185 |
