Two silver medals each bring $230,000 in auction.

A pair of struck silver Florida medals, each believed unique, topped bidding at Stack's 13th auction of the John J. Ford Jr. Collection, conducted Jan. 16 in New York City. Each medal brought $230,000, including a 15 percent buyer's fee.

The Ford auction brought a total of $2,250,446.50.

The auction offered John J. Ford Jr.'s French colonial coins and tokens, plus the first selections of Ford's Betts medals (the name given to American medals cataloged by C. Wyllys Betts in American Colonial History Illustrated by Contemporary Medals). The Betts medals featured the categories of Adm. Vernon and John Law medals; Spanish proclamation medals; medals relating to the New World from 1556 to 1745, and European peace and treaty medals.

A trio of Spanish Florida proclamation medals brought three of the four highest prices in the auction. Two are die struck, while one is a cast version of one of the struck pieces.

According to the cataloger, Spanish tradition demanded that when a new king ascended to the throne, each big town and city in Spain's New World colonies issue a special coin or medal to commemorate the citizens' loyalty to the king. Overall, the Ford auction offered more than 30 Spanish proclamation medals referring to the New World. Most of these proclamation pieces for general distribution were cast rather than die struck, to save on production costs and because of the lack of minting technology and skills in most communities issuing them.

The three Spanish Florida medals are the first medals or coins to bear the name "Florida," according to the cataloger. One was issued in 1760 to commemorate the accession of Charles III as king of Spain the previous year (a single example each of the struck and cast versions was offered). The other, dated 1789, was produced to celebrate the accession of Charles IV in 1788 following his father's death.

The Florida medals bear designs reminiscent of a special coinage Philip V authorized for Spanish Florida in 1746, known only through correspondence between officials in Florida, Spain and Mexico (where the coins were to have been struck). The surviving correspondence describes what the gold and silver coins were supposed to look like (a portrait of the king on the obverse and a flower, representing Florida, on the reverse). No records survive at the Mexico City Mint of any production of a special coinage, so whether any pieces were ever struck as ordered by Philip V is uncertain.

The obverse of each medal depicts the new monarch, with the 1760 medal bearing Charles III's name and the 1789 piece bearing an inscription naming Charles IV ("Charles" is spelled in its Spanish forms on the medals: "Carlos. III" and "Carolus IV"). Both inscriptions conclude with D.G. HISPAN. REX. ("King of Spain by the grace of God").

The reverses are of a floral theme (representing Florida) but of two different types.

The reverse of the 1760 medal depicts a rose in full bloom, with the date 1760 below and JUAN. ESTEVAN. DE PENA. FLORIDA around (Juan Estevan de Peña was the royal treasurer in St. Augustine).

The reverse of the 1789 medal depicts a six-lobed flower described as a "jasmine" by the Spanish governor of East Florida, with a small castle above it and a small lion below the blossom. The legend reads LA FLORa: ORIENTAL PER. ZESPEDs PROCLAM:tus 1789 (continuing the inscription from the obverse side, "Proclaimed Throughout East Florida by Zespedes"; Vincente Zespedes was governor of East Florida when he issued his proclamation celebrating the king's accession).

Each medal was struck, and has the weight of a Spanish colonial 4-real coin (itself the equivalent of a U.S. s