103489 | PANAMA & FRANCE. Panama Canal Company silver Medal.

103489  |  PANAMA & FRANCE. Panama Canal Company silver Medal or Subscriber's Ticket. Issued 1880 (34mm, 20.80 g, 12h). By Louis-Oscar Roty at the Paris mint.

 

PERCEMENT DE L'ISTHME DE PANAMA, America standing facing, welcoming the Atlantic and Pacific clasping hands; scroll, square, and level in exergue // CANAL / DE PANAMA / COMPAGNIE UNIVERSELLE / DU CANALINTEROCÉANIQUE / 7 8 ET 9 DÉCEMBRE 1880 / A SES SOUSCRIPTEURS / LA BANQUE / PARISIENNE in eight lines. Edge: «cornucopia» ARGENT.

 

Lecompte 2. PCGS MS-61. Deeply toned, with some hints of iridescence. A rare and desirable type, especially in this metal. Compare to a similar piece, though inferior as a PCGS AU-55, that realized a total of $600 in the Stack's Bowers November 2022 World Collectors Choice Online Auction (15 November 2022), lot 72946.

 

Dating back to the European exploration of what is now Panama in the early 16th century, the idea was floated of a connection of the two oceans at the narrowest point, though the massive earthworks project would need to wait a few centuries for more modern technology to play a role. This attempt was first made by France, with plans put into effect in the final quarter of the 19th century following the success of the Suez Canal not quite two decades prior. However, difficulties with the actual dig as well as exposure to local diseases that were novel to the European team doomed the project, despite the sentiments expressed on this medal. Though the company project was a failure, it would ultimately come to fruition under an American-led team a quarter of a century later, realizing the dream that had been birthed some four centuries prior.

 

Upload: 20 July 2026.

 

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