“The American Presidents“ series continues with a medal dedicated to Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln – a self-schooled lawyer – was a Member of Parliament of the state Illinois from 1834 to 1841, and from 1847 to 1848 a Member of the US Congress. From 1856 he headed the Republican party that he co-founded in 1854. In 1861 he was elected the 16^th US President and remained in office until his death in 1865. At the beginning of his first term in office differing opinions of Northern and Southern states on a variety of issues, including slavery, culminated. The Southern states, dissatisfied with his election as President, although he was a leader of the moderate faction of the Republican party, formed a Southern Confederacy and seceded from the Union. This led to the outbreak of the American Civil War – a war to maintain the Union. Despite initial political and military defeats of the North, the war was eventually won by the more progressive North headed by Lincoln, and forces fighting for national unity and preservation of democratic freedoms. A major turning point in the war came with the victory of the Union troops in the battle at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania in July 1863. Of similar significance was the subsequent Lincoln’s speech at the devotion of the Gettysburg National Cemetery, so-called Gettysburg Address, in November 1863. Still in the midst of the fighting, another Presidential election was held in 1864 and Lincoln was reelected by a majority of votes. In April 1865 in Ford’s theatre he was however murdered by a Southern fanatic, actor John Wilkes Booth (1838–1865). Abe Lincoln thus gained a sad primacy –becoming the first President of the United States killed by an assassin. But he became the symbol of political and democratic freedoms of the American nation.

On the obverse, author of the medal, academic sculptor Jiří Dostál, portrayed Abraham Lincoln as a statesman with strong and dramatic features emphasizing his uneasy task – to solve complex problems of the period. The portrait is accompanied by words (in Czech) “16. prezident“.

The principal motif of the reverse side is a bald eagle –symbol of America – with wide-spread wings, in the background with a composition reminding of the American flag.

Limited edition 200 pieces.