1893 Bronze Medal Eglit-55, Christopher Columbus

Coin Details

Auction Record

$312 MS63BN 04-12-2023 Stack's Bowers

Description

This 1893 bronze medal, cataloged as Eglit-55, features Christopher Columbus and was struck for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The Columbus portrait was the most ubiquitous iconographic element across the vast range of Columbian Exposition medals — the explorer's likeness appeared on hundreds of different types, reflecting the fair's core mission of celebrating the quadricentennial of European contact with the Americas. Depictions of Columbus on Exposition medals drew from a limited pool of historical and artistic sources, since no authentic portrait from Columbus's lifetime is known to survive. Medal designers typically based their renderings on 16th- and 17th-century paintings, most notably Sebastiano del Piombo's posthumous portrait, or on the idealized neoclassical figure established by earlier commemorative coinage and medals. The Eglit-55 design belongs to this tradition of interpretive portraiture. The bronze Eglit-55 is one of the more frequently encountered Columbus portrait types in the WCE medal series, appearing in multiple compositions including this bronze version and a companion gilt bronze version. The ubiquity of Columbus imagery at the 1893 fair reflected a period when the explorer was widely celebrated as a heroic figure in American popular culture — a perspective that has since been significantly reassessed by historians and the broader public.

Rarity Notes

Common Columbus portrait type in bronze. Multiple composition variants of Eglit-55 exist, with bronze being among the most frequently produced. Surviving examples are readily available in the WCE medal market.

Cross References

Eglit-55; PCGS #592003