1906 Benjamin Franklin Birth Bicentennial. Bronze, 101mm. Plain Edge, US Mint Strike. By Augustus and Louis Saint-Gaudens. Greenslet GM-119. MS-63 BN (NGC).Conceived in 1903 by the American Philosophical Society (of which Franklin was a member) and authorized by Congress in 1904, this glorious medal took nearly 16 months of work by Louis and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, with the latter providing the hard work and attention to all the details to bring the project to completion amidst bouts of intense pain from colon cancer and Louis absence traveling out West. Augustus had originally accepted the work on the Benjamin Franklin birth bicentennial medal on behalf of his brother Louis, who, though admittedly a better sculptor than Augustus, had no taste or mind for the details that would drive a sculpture or medal project from inception to completion. The design went through several iterations, including a complete redesign of the obverse at the eleventh hour, at the suggestion of Secretary of State Elihu Root, whose approval was required as the sole example in gold was to be presented to the Republic of France as a diplomatic gift. The Franklin medal project ended up delaying Augustus work on Roosevelts pet crime, the redesign of the gold coinage that we cherish today. In the end, Tiffany & Co. was chosen to strike the Congressionally authorized example in gold as well as 150 in bronze, with 100 going to the US government for distribution, and the other 50 going to the American Philosophical Society for its purposes. These presumably have the TIFFANY edge mark. After the presentation ceremony, the American Philosophical Society decided it wanted more of the medals and received permission to use the dies, which were produced outside of the US Mint, to strike an additional 200 medals by the US Mint in February 1907. These of course lack the TIFFANY edge mark, and evidently a large quantity of these remain with the American Philosophical Society today, having never been distributed over a century ago. This example is a dark coffee bean brown, the highpoints of the legends and designs highlighted in thinner coppery-brown patina, as made. Surfaces are absent any post-strike handling marks, though some minor marks imparted at the mint before the medal received its patina should be mentioned, notably the nearly vertical mark below the goddess Literatures right foot. Though a rare medal, Stacks Bowers has had the good fortune of offering several of these over the last couple decades, including an example offered in our March 2018 Baltimore auction that brought $4320. Here is a beautiful example of this master work of brothers Louis and August Saint-Gaudens, the premier sculptors of their day.From the Herman Halpern Collection.
