Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
April 1782
Primary Source Reference:
Du Simitière Memorandum Books, Library of Congress, fol. 65v
Additional Source Text:
"Legend Mre. Ac. de Harlay, Chr. C. de Beaumont, prr. gni. du Roy. reverse, a coat of arms defaced Surrounded with Laurels, urbis et fori, pauperum tutela. Exergue 1678."
Notes:
This jeton was issued by the City of Paris for Hachile de Harlay, tax officer to the Parisian charity office which helped poor people. The example pictured here was struck in 1672.
The donor may have been the John Mercier who was master of the brigantine William in 1776 and a volunteer with the Charleston battery who became a prisoner of war following the successful British siege of Charleston in the spring of 1780. See Benjamin Lincoln to George Washington, 25 Jan 1781, Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-04655. [This is an Early Access document from The Papers of George Washington]; and https://awiatsea.com/pl/am/American%20Prizes%20January%201776/William%2…
