LINCOLN MEDAL

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:October 13, 2023 the French-Swiss Medal in honor of Abraham Lincoln Grand Old Partisan spotlights an early remembrance of Abraham Lincoln from a foreign country. It is a beautiful gold medal presented to his widow by citizens of France. October 13th 1866, they wrote to Mary Todd Lincoln: "Madam: We have been charged with the duty of presenting to you the medal in honor of the great and honest man whose name you bear, and which forty thousand French citizens have caused to be struck, with a desire to express their sympathy for the American Union, in the person of one of its most illustrious and purest representatives." The emperor, Napoleon III, had opposed this endeavor, so it was minted in Switzerland. Known as the French-Swiss Medal, it was later donated to the Library of Congress by Robert Todd Lincoln. Many bronze copies were produced.