Medal - George III - Captain Cook

Reverse

Two sailing ships.

Script: Latin

Lettering:
RESOLUTION ADVENTURE
SAILED FROM ENGLAND MARCH. MDCCLXXII

Engraver: John Westwood Senior

Comment

1772 Captain Cook. Bronze. XF. 44.2 mm, 39.4 gm. Obverse signed by Barnet. Famous British explorer Captain James Cook (1728-79), was also a navigator, cartographer, and Royal Navy captain. Among his lesser-known accomplishments, Cook drew detailed maps of Newfoundland. A fight with Hawaiians during his third voyage to the Pacific resulted in his death.
Example of this medal in platina were distributed, along with various other objects, to inhabitants of the Pacific Islands in 1772, during the second voyage by the mariner and explorer Captain James Cook (1728-1779). The logs of the Resolution and the Adventure, on which the expedition was undertaken, record more than thirty places at which the distribution took place, and examples of the medal frequently occur in a worn and weathered state. The balace of undiatributed medals accompanied Cook on his third and final expedition in 1776, when he returned to the Pacific and shortly thereafter met his death. The medal was comissioned by the naturalist and benefactor Joseph Banks (1743-1820), who was to have accompanied Cook on that second voyage, but withdraw at a late stage. 2000 examples of the platina medal are recorded as having been produced and they were issued with a swivel suspension loop - now often missing - attached to the edge of the medal. The medal was struck on a thin flan and the brass-like metal, an alloy of copper, zinc, lead and tin - in wich they were made was given a light gilding.Examples all seem to have been struck from a cracked die, which shows itself as a flaw in the lower-left hand portion of the exergue (type a). A further 142 examples in silver and 2 in gold are recorded as having been ordered by Joseph Banks, for personal presentation to friends and associates and to those closely associated with the expedition, for which a new reverse die was prepared (type b). The reverse on this second issue, which was struck on a heavier flanand with a different form of collar, differs else only in position of the anchor on the left ship the Resolution andd in other small details. The obverse is common to both type a and b and it carries the initials "B:F" on the truncation of George III's bust, indicating the partnership of Matthew Boulton and John Fothergill responsible of the manufacture of these medals. THe dies were engraved by John Westwood, whose signature does not appear on the medal.

Price

Date	Mintage	VG	F	VF	XF	AU	UNC
1772	2000	-	-	-	-	-	-

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