This Resolution and Adventure medal is one of 2000 that were commissioned by the British Admiralty ahead of James Cook’s Second Voyage.

Extracted from Antiques Trade Gazette | Roland Arkell

They were to be used as gifts or bartering tools when encountering indigenous people with others given as favours to sailors.

The medals were made from platina, an alloy of brass, copper, lead, tin and antimony, and have a bust of George III on the obverse and a depiction of the Resolution and Adventure on the reverse.

Typically, the side featuring the king is often better preserved, as the medals were worn as pendants with the monarch facing outwards, causing rubbing to the reverse.

The early provenance of this medal, offered at Tennants’ (20% buyer’s premium) Militaria and Ethnographic sale in Leyburn on September 25, had been lost but it was given to the vendor by his grandmother when he was young.

It sold for £3200 against an estimate of £800-1200.