ain any trustworthy information
respecting the designer and the engraver of the medal, voted on March
29, 1800, in honor of Captain Thomas Truxtun. As there were no
competent medallists in the United States at the period, and as we
were then at war with France, it is presumable that the dies were made
in England. If so, they were probably cut at the private mint of
Matthew Boulton, of Birmingham, who furnished the United States
Government for a long time with planchets for its copper coinage.

The work now offered to the public consists of two volumes: Volume I.,
Text; Volume II., Plates.

The text is subdivided into eighty-six sections, corresponding to the
number of the medals, in each of which is included, besides the
descriptive matter, all the documents that could be obtained relating
to the respective piece, and arranged according to the following plan:

1. The number of the medal, its date, and its number in the book of
plates. The medals are arranged chronologically: those voted by
Congress according to the dates of the several resolutions or acts
awarding them, and not in the order of the events which they
commemorate; the unofficial ones in the order of events which they
commemorate; and the presidential pieces according to the date (p. xxxii)
of inauguration of each President.

2. The descriptive titles of each medal, in the following order: 1st,
the legends of the obverse and of the reverse; 2d, the name of the
person honored, or of the title by which the piece is known; 3d, the
event commemorated.

3. A description of the medal, beginning with the obverse: 1st, the
whole legend; 2d, the description of the emblems and devices; 3d, the
legend of the exergue; 4th, the names of the designer and of the
engraver. The same order has been followed for the reverse. The
legends are copied exactly from the medals, and when in Latin,
translated; the abbreviations are explained, and are, like the
translations, placed between parentheses. The words, "facing the
right" and "facing the left" mean the right or the left of the person
looking at the piece.

4. A short biographical sketch of the designers and of the engravers.

5. A short biographical sketch of the person in whose honor the medal
was struck, or of the President of the United States, in case of the
Indian peace tokens.

6. Original documents, such as Resolutions or Acts of Congress, the
official reports of the events commemorated, and letters of int