Owner Comments:
There is little information about Pan American medals for those searching original mintages, current populations, die varities, and the like. The internet yields perhaps a couple of clues about mintages of this piece, but nothing definite. The St. Louis Republic newspaper from October 10, 1901, published a list of awards presented at the Exposition. There were 887 gold medals, 1,159 silver, and 1,147 bronze presented. Though not necessarily correlating with original mintages and current populations, these figures point out that more "silver" medals were presented than any other type. It must be pointed out that most of the "silver" medals appear to have been silver-plated bronze. Actual medals struck in silver are regarded to be the rarest of the three main types of this Hermon MacNeil award medal (most notably on the Youtube video with an estimated surviving population of around 20). The silver plating of bronze medals is consistent with gilted bronze for the "gold" award medals, as those were almost exclusively gold plated. However, it is thought that perhaps a scant 10 examples actually struck in gold. Another reason silver examples are scarce is probably that many may have been melted.
This example is a visually striking piece grading MS60. Several light or minute marks, and an old but not too harsh cleaning, account for the grade.
About ten years ago there was only one other graded example I was aware of, an NGC AU55 (# 2540209-003) that sold at Heritage (Auction #1143, Lot 11706, August 15, 2011) for $1,725. The current population as of March 4, 2023, shows there are 13 others graded: 1 - AU58, 3 - MS61, 5 - MS62, 2 - MS63, and 2 - MS64.