1901 William McKinley Memorial Badge with Original Mourning Ribbon

A memorial badge struck after McKinley's death in September 1901, still hanging from its original black ribbon. One face is a bust of McKinley to the left inside a laurel wreath border. The other carries the plain facts and nothing else: WILLIAM McKINLEY, BORN JAN. 29, 1843, ASSASSINATED SEP. 6, 1901, DIED SEP. 14, 1901. He was shot at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo on the sixth and lived another eight days. Badges of this kind were made in quantity in the weeks between the shooting and the funeral, and worn to the memorial services held across the country that autumn. Most were parted from their ribbon long ago. This one still hangs from its ring on the original. The medal is 38 mm in white metal, pierced through the rim at the top with a jump ring through the hole carrying the ribbon. An unpierced example is worth more as a medal; this is offered as the complete badge, suspension and ribbon intact. Condition: please see the photographs.