, (p. vi)

LATE ENVOY EXTRAORDINARY AND MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO FRANCE.

My Dear Sir:

Permit me to dedicate to you this work on our National Medals,
as a slight testimonial for your distinguished services during
your long official residence in Paris, and especially during
the siege of that city in 1870-1871, when you had under your
protection the subjects of fourteen governments besides your
own, and yet so discharged your delicate and responsible duties
as to win universal approbation.

Yours sincerely,
J. F. LOUBAT.
New-York, Union Club, _May_, _1878_.

INTRODUCTION. (p. vii)

Medals, by means of the engraver's art, perpetuate in a durable form
and within a small compass which the eye can embrace at a glance, not
only the features of eminent persons, but the dates, brief accounts,
and representations (direct or emblematical) of events; they rank,
therefore, among the most valuable records of the past, especially
when they recall men, deeds, or circumstances which have influenced
the life of nations. How much light has been furnished for the study
of history by the concise and faithful testimony of these silent
witnesses! The importance of medals is now universally acknowledged,
and in almost every country they are preserved with reverent care, and
made the subject of costly publications, illustrated by elaborate
engravings, with carefully prepared letter-press descriptions and
notes. Up to the present time no thorough work devoted to the medals
of the United States of America has been published. When I entered
upon the task, several years ago, of investigating their history (p. viii)
for the period embracing the first century of the Republic, I had
little conception of the difficulties to be encountered. The search
involved a very considerable expenditure of time and labor, but at
last I have the satisfaction of offering to the public the result of
my investigations, completed according to the original plan.

Although our political history measures but a hundred years, it
records so many memorable deeds, and the names of so many illustrious
citizens, that our medals form, even now, an historically valuable
collection, to say nothing of the great artistic merit