1892-1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition Award Medal. By Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Charles E. Barber. Eglit-90, Rulau-X3. Bronze. Choice Mint State. 76.3 mm. The tablet on the reverse inscribed to the recipient SUA SANTITA, / LEONE XIII (i.e. Pope Leo XIII) in two lines. Lovely chocolate brown surfaces show hints of golden-brown at the peripheries and protected areas of the designs, the edge is a flashy and reflective iridescent golden-brown. The Columbian Exposition award medal is widely recognized as one of the finest medallic portraits of Christopher Columbus ever produced, though its conception and production was fraught by the famed conflict between Americas greatest sculptor, August Saint-Gaudens, and the U.S. Mints chief engraver, Charles Barber. Saint-Gaudens original concept featuring a nude youth for the reverse met resistance and was abandoned for the busy and less skilled design by Barber that appeared on the reverse of the official, approved medal, creating a Jekyll and Hyde-like mating of designs and skill levels. The hubs and dies were produced by the U.S. Mint, while the actual striking of the medals was farmed out to the Scovill Manufacturing Company, which painstakingly produced 23,597 medals, creating and replacing the insert die for each individual awardee between strikings. The medals were ready only in 1896, long after the Expo had ended and closed.<p>This particular medal is incredible in that it is awarded to Pope Leo XIII, who led the Catholic Church from 1878 to his passing in 1903. Though we cannot find any information as to why the Pope would have received this award or whether he attended the Expo in Chicago, we know that he sent representatives to see the ambitious Catholic Educational Exhibit mounted by the American wing of the Church at the Expo. We imagine that this medal is less an actual award and more a diplomatic gift of appreciation to a head of state. It would find a welcome home in a cabinet of great Saint-Gaudens medals, of Papal coins and medals, or in the holdings of a medal collector who strives to own only superb pieces within their class.
