Indian Peace Medals: Russ Augustin Explores Rare U.S. History
Video with Russell Augustin
Indian Peace Medals rank among the most historic objects in American numismatics. They also carry a human story that coins often cannot match.
In this CoinWeek episode, AU Capital Management President Russ Augustin joins CoinWeek to discuss this fascinating medallic series. He also shares several Indian Peace Medals from his own collection.
These medals played an important role in diplomacy between Native nations and European and American governments. However, they also tell a more complex story. They speak to alliance, trade, power, conflict, broken promises, and survival.
A Medal Series Steeped in American History
These Presidential Medals Once Carried America’s Promises to Native Leaders
Indian Peace Medals began as diplomatic gifts. British, French, and Spanish officials used similar medals in colonial North America. They gave them to Native leaders as marks of alliance, friendship, and influence.
After independence, the United States continued the practice. Federal officials understood the symbolic power of these medals. Therefore, they used them during treaty talks, diplomatic meetings, and government missions.
The medals often carried a president’s portrait. Many also displayed clasped hands, a peace pipe, a tomahawk, or language that stressed “peace” and “friendship.” Yet collectors today must view those words with care. The medals promised cooperation. History often delivered something far more difficult.
That tension gives the series much of its power.
From British Colonial Policy to the Corps of Discovery
The Indian Peace Medal tradition reaches back to the English administration of the American colonies. Colonial officials used medals and other presentation pieces to strengthen alliances with Native leaders. Those objects carried status. They also marked the wearer as a person with a direct relationship to a powerful outside government.
Then, after the American Revolution, the new republic adopted the same diplomatic language. Early federal leaders wanted Native nations to recognize the United States, rather than Britain or Spain, as the dominant power in North America.
Thomas Jefferson’s administration gave the series one of its most famous chapters. The Jefferson Indian Peace Medal became the first to feature an American president. Its reverse showed clasped hands beneath a crossed peace pipe and tomahawk. The message looked simple. However, the meaning reached deep into diplomacy, trade, and westward expansion.
Jefferson also sent these medals west with the Corps of Discovery. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark carried them during their 1804–06 expedition. As a result, the medals became physical symbols of a new American claim over lands and peoples that the federal government barely understood.
The United States Mint could not yet strike large, solid medals for Jefferson. So, Mint workers made the large Jefferson pieces from thin silver shells. They joined the sides with a silver rim. Later, beginning with James Madison, the Mint issued solid silver medals in several sizes.
Size mattered. Officials generally reserved the largest medals for the most important chiefs. They gave smaller medals to lesser chiefs, warriors, or other influential men. Therefore, each medal also carried a ranking system.
Medals With Names, Stories, and Consequences
Indian Peace Medals differ from most coins in one crucial way. Coins usually pass through many unknown hands. By contrast, many peace medals went to specific people. Some names still appear in treaty documents, agency records, and museum files.
That makes the series intensely personal.
The American Numismatic Society’s collection shows this point with unusual force. Its Indian Peace Medals include pieces linked to named Native leaders. In many cases, those men did not become household names like Black Hawk, Sitting Bull, or Crazy Horse. Instead, they stood closer to the ground-level reality of 19th-century diplomacy. They tried to protect their people in a changing and dangerous world.
One of the most dramatic examples involves a large Abraham Lincoln Indian Peace Medal attributed to Honkapkna, also known as Honko or Unco. He belonged to the Ute world of Colorado and had ties to the White River Ute Indian Agency. During an 1873 skirmish with Cheyenne warriors, a bullet struck him in the chest. The medal reportedly stopped the bullet. Honkapkna survived. However, he later viewed the medal as “bad medicine” because it did not prevent the shot in the first place.
Another ANS medal carries the name of Piah, a leader of the Nevava Ute band. His Ulysses S. Grant medal appears to connect with the Brunot Agreement of September 13, 1873. That agreement opened the gold-rich San Juan Mountains within the Ute reservation to outside interests in exchange for annual payments.
Here, the medal becomes more than silver. It becomes a witness.
Why Collectors Pursue Indian Peace Medals
For collectors, Indian Peace Medals offer rarity, history, and visual power. They also demand knowledge.
Original silver medals can be very rare. Many show heavy wear because recipients wore them. Others entered collections through complex routes. In addition, the U.S. Mint later struck bronze restrikes for collectors. Some later copies and altered pieces create authentication challenges.
Therefore, serious buyers need trusted expertise. They should study provenance, metal, size, die work, suspension marks, edge details, and any recorded owner history. They should also rely on respected references and experienced specialists.
That is one reason this CoinWeek episode matters. Russ Augustin brings the collector’s eye to a series that rewards careful study. He also shows why these medals appeal most to intermediate and advanced collectors.
Russ Augustin Shares Medals From His Collection
In this video, Russ presents a selection of Indian Peace Medals and explains their place in American history. The discussion moves from colonial-era diplomacy to Jefferson’s Corps of Discovery and then through many later presidential administrations.
Together, these medals form one of the most meaningful series in American exonumia. They connect presidents, Native leaders, treaty history, western expansion, and the U.S. Mint.
Russ has assembled a selection of Indian Peace Medals that are available for purchase. To learn more about his current inventory, contact Russ at AU Capital Management.
