1901 Assay Commission Medal - JK-AC-45, Copper, William McKinley

Coin Details

Auction Record

$9,400 SP64 08-13-2015 Heritage Auctions

Description

The 1901 Assay Commission medal JK-AC-45 in copper features the fourth and final McKinley portrait in the standard distribution metal. Like the silver version, the copper JK-AC-45 was produced before the President's September assassination, making it the last in the four-medal McKinley sequence and an inadvertent memorial piece. McKinley's assassination at the Pan-American Exposition — a celebration of American technological and industrial progress — created a jarring juxtaposition between the optimism of the era and the violence of the act. The copper medal bearing his portrait had been distributed to commission members months before the shooting, giving it a quality of innocent normalcy that the subsequent tragedy transformed into melancholy. The copper JK-AC-45 concludes the McKinley sub-collection that began with JK-AC-42 in 1898. Over four years, the copper versions provided the accessible backbone of the McKinley sequence, ensuring that all commission members held a tangible connection to the President whose monetary policies had defined the commission's operating environment. The turn-of-the-century McKinley medals stand at the boundary between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, marking the end of one era and the beginning of another.

Rarity Notes

JK-AC-45 (1901) in copper. Final "William McKinley" portrait from the year of his assassination. Standard distribution piece.

Cross References

PCGS #512442; JK-AC-45; 1901 Assay Commission