Wurzb.-6238 variety, struck in Prussia ca. 1774 to honor Moses Mendelssohn, founder of the Haskala movement and author of PHÆDON published in that year.  Dies by I. Abraham.  Silver, 43mm.

In the category of "And now for something completely different", we are pleased to present this striking piece with an image of a Butterfly perched on a cracked human Skull symbolizing the immortality of the soul on one side, and a portrait of Mendelssohn on the other.

The piece itself is the finest we have seen, proof-like, with colorful old cabinet toning on the obverse and reverse and would be graded MS64 or so save for a an old, unobtrusive scratch above the P in PHÆDON (in the same place where we have observed similar marks on other examples of this type, indicating perhaps an old mount or bezel mark). 

And while we would of course prefer that this piece was utterly pristine, we doubt very much such an example exists.

$1,975

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