Washington Funeral Medals

Washington Funeral Medals are a relatively obscure niche of exonumia, and they have a particular following among collectors of Washingtonia – items relating to iconic Revolutionary War general and first United States president George Washington. Over the centuries, funeral pieces have been struck to memorialize the passings of royal rulers, though other kinds of sovereign leaders and heads of state have been so honored on these novel numismatic pieces, including Catholic archbishops and United States presidents, Washington among them.

Funeral coins and medals date back to at least the 12th century, when Germany struck coinage honoring Albert the Bear upon his passing in 1170 and Archbishop Wichman von Seeburg in 1192. When Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg John Frederick died in 1679, he was remembered on a 6 Sterbethaler with a design of a skeleton breaking palm fronds to symbolize death. Funeral coins also mark the deaths of King Frederick I in 1713 and Frederick the Great in 1786. In the United States collecting circles, the macabre genre of funeral pieces is anchored by the body of Washingtonia, which provided several varieties of Washington Funeral Medals.

Washington’s passing in 1799 was a sad first of sorts for the United States, which at the turn of the 19th century had little history as a formal nation and regarded the familiar statesman as the nation’s father – a moniker still ascribed to Washington even today. Americans mourned deeply upon learning of Washington’s death on December 14, 1799, at the age of 67. A funeral occurred in regal fashion for the fallen first president four days later, on December 18, 1799, at his home of Mount Vernon in Virginia. In those pre-telegraph days, news of Washington’s death traveled slowly but was met with great sorrow not just throughout the United States but around the world, as he was a widely admired and respected figure.

Among the outpouring of emotion over the death of George Washington was the creation of funeral medals that honored his life and served as mementos of the Founding Father. While a wide variety of these pieces were struck, some of the most important to collectors today were produced in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in the first weeks of 1800 to coincide with two funeral processions that took place there in memory of Washington. The majority of these pieces were made from precious metals – most of them were made in a white metal or silver, though some were struck in gold.

Some of the Washington Funeral Medals most commonly studied by collectors and referenced here include a family of medals bearing a depiction of George Washington on the obverse, while the reverse saw two different designs, struck in correspondence to the two funeral processions. Medals made for a procession of Masons on February 11, 1800, carry a skull and crossbones design on the reverse, while those made for a general funeral procession on February 22, 1800, are anchored by an urn motif.

Another interesting Washington Funeral Medal was a one-sided piece also struck in Massachusetts and made in gold. Produced by goldsmith Eben Moulton on Cornhill Street in Boston, these pieces were advertised in the Columbian Centinel and Massachusetts Federalist as suitable for locket pieces and jewelry mounting. Around a dozen exist today, most with holes or other evidence of past alteration to tie it into jewelry housing.

The realm of Washingtonia offers collectors many other fascinating pieces, many of which are not necessarily numismatic in nature but provide rich historical context on George Washington and the somber mood of the nation in the weeks following his death. Due to the great rarity of many of these items and the demand for collectibles that hearken to this early national figure, Washington Funeral Medals often trade for many thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars.