Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
May 1781
Primary Source Reference:
Du Simitière Memorandum Books, Library of Congress, fol. 58v
Additional Source Text:
"Having on one Side Liberty trampling down a Tyrant, round it, Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God. on the top Virginia. On the reverse, a White man and an Indian sitting on a bench under a tree with a pipe in the hand, round, happy while united, in the exergue, 1780. A pipe an eagle's wing on the top of the medal with an opening between to Suspend it by."
Notes:
This was the so-called "Rebellion to Tyrants / Happy While United" medal minted in Virginia in 1780.
First envisioned by Thomas Jefferson, the medal was intended to be given to Indian signatories to the treaties Jefferson planned with the First Peoples of Virginia. Some of the bronze medals were given to General Joseph Martin, agent to the Cherokees, for distribution by Martin to Cherokee chiefs. The obverse portrays a variation of the Virginia state seal with the state's symbol standing triumphant over a slain enemy with the legend "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God." The reverse portrays a Virginia colonial sitting enjoying a peace pipe with a Native American.
See John W. Adams, "The Virginia Happy While United Medal," American Journal of Numismatics 2d ser. 3-4 (1991-1992): 123-134.
The donor was Isaac Zane, Jr. (1743-1795), a Philadelphia Quaker who had moved to the Shenandoah Valley about 1767, owned and operated the Marlboro Iron Works about twelve miles south of Winchester, Virginia. During the war years Zane manufactured four- and six-pound cannon, shot, kettles, salt pans, and stoves for the American forces. He also served in the House of Burgesses from 1773 to 1776, the Virginia conventions from 1774 to 1776, and the general assembly from 1776 to 1795.
