1901 Pan-American Exposition McKinley Memorial So-Called Dollar HK-290a Aluminum

A 1901 so-called dollar struck in aluminum, cataloged as HK-290a and measuring 34 mm. The obverse carries a bust of William McKinley with the dates of his birth and death; the reverse shows the Temple of Music. The Pan-American Exposition opened at Buffalo in May 1901 as a showcase of a confident industrial America. On September 6 McKinley stood receiving the public in the Temple of Music when Leon Czolgosz shot him twice at close range. He died on the fourteenth, and Theodore Roosevelt took the oath in Buffalo that afternoon. This piece is the exposition's own souvenir dollar format turned into a mourning piece, and memorial issues like it followed quickly. So-called dollars are the dollar sized medals struck for expositions, monuments and public events from the 1850s into the twentieth century, cataloged by Harold Hibler and Charles Kappen in 1963. The HK numbers come from that book. HK-290 is the brass striking of this design and HK-290a is the aluminum. Aluminum had only become cheap to produce in the late 1880s, so by 1901 it was practical for souvenir work while still carrying a little of its novelty. Ex J. Doyle DeWitt. DeWitt built the reference collection of American political material, some seventy thousand pieces, while rising from claims investigator to president of the Travelers Insurance Company. Graded Mint State in hand. Offered raw, without certification.