1967 William H. Seward & John A. Macdonald Centennial Medallion

1967 William H. Seward & John A. Macdonald Centennial Medallion

Secretary of State during the 1860s, William Henry Seward was a staunch believer in Manifest Destiny -- that is, the United States' divine right to rule all of North America. One problem: Canada was expanding rapidly towards the West Coast. John A. Macdonald, Prime Minister of the newly independent country, recognized the threat of American imperialism and saw that the only way to stop it was to get there first. Thus began the formation of North America as we know it, with Canada expanding west as rapidly as possible to draw a line through American ambition. Seward, meanwhile, was in talks with Russia to purchase Alaska, an expansive northern territory that Russia had used for fur trading since the 18th century. The land was not seen as terribly useful (the Klondike gold rush was still decades out), but the opportunity to pinch British Columbia between American territory was too good to pass up. The deal went through in 1867 for a whopping $7.2 million, and the new territory quickly picked up some amusing nicknames, including "Seward's Folly" and "Seward's Icebox." Of course, Alaska would become America's 49th state in 1959.

This 1967 medallion celebrates the double centennial of Canada's Confederation and the Alaska Purchase. It features overlapping busts of the two rival architects of North America, Seward and Macdonald, on the obverse, and a map of Canada and Alaska on the reverse.