1923 Pony Express Race Gold Medal sponsored by Wells Fargo NV Bank NGC AU55

Obv.: Pony Express Race 1923 / (pictorial horse and rider) / St. Joseph, Mo. to San Francisco, Cal.;

Rev.: Presented to / Denzil Gardner / by / Wells Fargo / Nevada / National / Bank / of / San Francisco. 24mm.

According to Holabird, the Pony Express Memorial Association re-enacted the 1861 record ride of the Pony Express which carried President Lincoln's inaugural address to California. The 1923 ride was made by numerous teams, all trying to break the original record of 7 days, 7 hours made in 1861. Fifty teams left from St. Joseph, Missouri on August 31, 1923 carrying messages from eastern governors and the President to the western governors and people. Wells Fargo National Bank announced it would present a gold medal to each member of the winning team. The winning team's last rider was the grandson of Lloyd Tevis, a longtime president of Wells Fargo. They broke the record by 42 hours, with Tevis changing horses every ten miles. 

The bank offered bronze replicas of the gold medal to new depositors of interest bearing time accounts. A soldered ring at the top allowed the piece to be used as a key or watch fob. 

The medal was designed by Maynard Dixon, one of the most important western artists of the time. We found no notations of how many were made. The silver medal with the same design by Maynard Dixon is sterling. No specific mention was ever made who received these, though Chandler suggests they were possibly given to members of the Pony Express Memorial Association. These are extremely rare. The gold medals are exceedingly rare, and it is possible that the Wells Fargo collection contains one of the few known today.

Internet searches revealed only two other gold examples, presented to Leo Petit and Louis J. Collister, and neither are as nice as the present lightly circulated caramel-gold specimen.