 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition Gold Medal. 169.8 gns. (10.99 gms.). 38.5 mm. Bust of Victoria/Inscription within wreath. By H. Stokes. Gem Uncirculated. Prooflike. Lovely, bright yellow gold color. Some hairlines but none significant. Full, mirror fields. Edge engraved: Providence Tool Co. Peabody Martini Rifles. In 1862, Henry Peabody invented the action that Friedrich Martini quickly refined into the standard military rifle of its day, the Martini Henry Rifle, made famous to generations of English schoolboys through the pages of H. Rider Haggard's novels. By 1875, the Providence Tool Company was making sporting rifles called Peabody-Martinis.
Ex Eugene Detmer Collection (Stack's, February 2, 1983, lot 343).
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