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Medal Name: Hundredth Anniversary of American Independence
Approval: Act of Congress
OBVERSE
THESE UNITED COLONIES ARE, AND OF RIGHT OUGHT TO BE, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES.
A female figure, personifying the United Colonies, is kneeling, with a sword in her right hand, while she points with her left to a constellation of thirteen stars, emblematical of the thirteen original United States.
Exergue: 1776.
REVERSE 1
IN COMMEMORATION OF THE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE ACT OF CONGRESS JUNE 1874.
America personified as a maiden, coiffed with the Phrygian cap of liberty, girt with a sword, and with the shield of the United States of America by her side, is crowning with laurels two female figures representing Manufactures and Arts.
On the platform, 1876.
REVERSE 2
BY AUTHORITY OF THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES 1876.
Within a wreath of laurel, IN COMMEMORATION OF THE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE
On the platform, 1876.
BACKGROUND
Act of Congress Authorizing Centennial Medals.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled: That medals with appropriate devices, emblems and inscriptions, commemorative of the Centennial Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, be prepared at the mint at Philadelphia for the Centennial Board of Finance, subject to the provisions of the fifty-second section of the coinage act of eighteen hundred and seventy-three, upon the payment of a sum not less than the cost thereof, and all the provisions whether penal or otherwise of said coinage act against the counterfeiting or imitating of coins of the United States shall apply to the medals struck and issued under the provisions of this act.
Approved June 16, 1874.
Source: The Medallic History of the United States of America 1776-1876 by J. F. Loubat, LL.D. (1878)