Panorama 1901
Special Medal of Honor Created For Augustus Saint Gaudens

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This is the most artistically celebrated medal associated with the expo and with the passage of time is now becoming one of the most obscure! This Special Medal of Honor Created for Augustus Saint Gaudens was commissioned by the Jury of the Pan American Exposition. The medal was created by James Earl Fraser (of 1913 buffalo nickel fame) who worked under Saint Gaudens from 1899 to 1901. This was Fraser's first commission. Though commissioned for the expo, it is believed per contemporaneous accounts that the medal took years to finalize. The original 102mm gold struck medal was presented to St. Gauden's widow circa 1908. Replicas were made and sold to various museums and institutions circa 1908 and measure 3 9/16 inches (91mm) in diameter. The book "Augustus Saint-Gaudens in the Metropolitan Museum of Art" by Thayer Tolles gives the mintage of these pieces as "struck in edition of 25 bronzes."

A lovely red/brown example sold at the Stack's Baltimore auction, June 2012, for $9,400 (Ex Rockefeller-Dodge Collection). The current NGC census lists an example in MS62, and does not list this one. Other examples reside in the collections of the American Numismatic Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (two examples), the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, and the Albright Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo New York.

Here is one of only 25 pieces (or less) that still exist. This is an amazing museum-caliber medal with a lovely brown patina.