1923 Wells Fargo Pony Express Race Gold Medal
Zoins
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Just ran across this medal while perusing Holabird Americana. What a great medal with great history.
Info from Holabird:
Obv.: Pony Express Race 1923 / (pictorial horse and rider) / St. Joseph, Mo. to San Francisco, Cal.; Rev.: Presented to / Leo Petit / by / Wells Fargo / Nevada / National / Bank / of / San Francisco. 24mm.
The Pony Express Memorial Association re-enacted the 1861 record ride of the Pony Express which carried President Lincoln's inaugural address to California. The 1923 ride was made by numerous teams, all trying to break the original record of 7 days, 7 hours made in 1861. Fifty teams left from St. Joseph, Missouri on August 31, 1923 carrying messages from eastern governors and the President to the western governors and people. Wells Fargo National Bank announced it would present a gold medal to each member of the winning team. The winning team's last rider was the grandson of Lloyd Tevis, a longtime president of Wells Fargo. They broke the record by 42 hours, with Tevis changing horses every ten miles.
The bank offered bronze replicas of the gold medal to new depositors of interest bearing time accounts. A soldered ring at the top allowed the piece to be used as a key or watch fob.
The medal was designed by Maynard Dixon, one of the most important western artists of the time. We found no notations of how many were made. The silver medal with the same design by Maynard Dixon is sterling. No specific mention was ever made who received these, though Chandler suggests they were possibly given to members of the Pony Express Memorial Association. These are extremely rare. The gold medals are exceedingly rare, and it is possible that the Wells Fargo collection contains one of the few known today. These were the last medallic pieces officially struck for Wells Fargo until 1977 (Ref: Chandler, PCNS, 1993). City: San Francisco State: California Date: HWAC# 50456
It sold for $5445.00 consisting of a $4,500.00 hammer and $945.00 buyer's premium on a estimate of $1,000.00-$2,000.00 and a $500.00 starting bid.
Comments
Very cool! I've always really liked artifacts like this with a wild west theme. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for posting. Very interesting to read about the 1923 reenactment. For those interested in a Carson City, and its mint's, connection to the Pony Express, here is a link that may be of interest:
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/914924/remembering-the-pony-express-at-the-carson-city-mint-a-photo-essay
wow, neat item
BHNC #203
I really like that medal.... Great history of an important period in America....Having seen a picture of this years ago, I have long perused antique shops in the hope of finding a 'stray' one...No luck so far - but hope springs eternal.....
Cheers, RickO
Beautiful medal. Thanks for sharing Zoins.
OK.....Leo Petit got the medal, but the horse did all the work. What did the horse get?
Totally cool medal. Thanks for posting it and the info!
K
oats and water, a sugar cube if it was lucky or maybe an apple.
What is touching about this medal is the obvious wear - the honoree must have worn it on many occasions.
thats way cool to see, i like
Really nice & Cool Medal, thank you for sharing pictures of it with us
@RogerB @keets ....Also stud privileges at the pony farm....
Cheers, RickO
For the horse or rider?
whooooooaaaaaa, big fella!!!
My grandfather rode two legs of that race, and I guess he was on the same team as Mr. Petit, as I inherited his gold medal, with the same type of engraving. 1923 was the year that my dad was born, and he told me that he waould take the medal out of granddad’s drawer often, just to look at it.
I often dig around ebay for La. Purchase/Worlds Fair type exonumia and always amazed at the endless roads it takes me down...
These two are amazing pieces!
Way cooler would be to reunite them all!
Interesting related auction...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/PONY-EXPRESS-Celebration-Souvenir-Program-St-Joseph-Missouri-1923-Lake-Contrary/372585439795?hash=item56bfd2a233:g:AGUAAOSwzrNa-4g7:rk:1:pf:0
BST: KindaNewish (3/21/21), WQuarterFreddie (3/30/21), Meltdown (4/6/21), DBSTrader2 (5/5/21) AKA- unclemonkey on Blow Out
Very Cool @Killdeer!
Hay
> @RogerB said:
There were many horses run on that route. The average distance run by each horse was ten to twelve miles.
The horse got free room and board, personal care, clothing, housekeeping, transportation,medical, plus bonuses.
😀
yspsales, thanks for the heads-up. I had seen that, and I went ahead and bought it last night. The same images of it are online from when it got sold before! That thing has been around.
Killdeer
Killer follow up to this old thread. That is why I love exonumia so much. Endless research and history, often with personal connections
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
@Killdeer Your grandfather and Leo Petit were both part of the Kansas team.
A total of 75 riders took part so there may be that many medals out there.
The 1923 revival race is documented in the book "Vanishing Trails of Romance" by Warren E. Boyer.
We're lucky that Google Books has scanned this here:
https://books.google.com/books?id=wRTXAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1
This is covered starting on page 77:
https://books.google.com/books?id=wRTXAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA77
Some excerpts:
[...] Description of revival:
[...] Mention of Louis Collister and Leo Petit below:
That is SO cool! I am stoked!
John and Louis were brothers, and Jack Casement is the son of Dan Casement. Dan owned Juniata Farm on the Blue River, raising cattle. He also bought land in Colorado, which became the Casement Ranch.
My great granddad, Nelson, father of those boys, was Dan Casement’s farm manager.
Granddad was born there, in Manhattan, KS. In his teens he broke and trained polo ponies for the officers at Fort Riley. He was a professional horseman all his life. Being a horse freak, I adored him and hung on every word he spoke.
Now I can glean info from the celebration’s souvenir program, find and read the book you so kindly guided my path toward, and dig out my uncle’s account of the ride, which I have not read in many years. I have also been reading Casement’s book, “Random Recollections”, which mentions John a lot.
Thanks again for the great lead!
Killdeer (That’s granddad in my profile pic. I don’t look near that good!)
“Nelson, father of those boys...”
I meant the Collister boys. I don’t think he fathered Dan’s boy Jack.
🙄
My grandmother's family lived near Dutch Flat, California at that time, and the Victory (Lincoln) Highway ran very close to their property.
There is no doubt that the race was publicized locally and they could have watched the riders ride by.
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