The first medal (Hume #2) struck by the Society of the Cincinnati was commemorative of its hundredth birthday. The Triennial General Meeting of 1881 adopted the following resolution:

"Resolved, That the committee be authorized to cause to be prepared a commemorative medal, with appropriate design and inscription, to celebrate the occasion of the Centennial anniversary of the foundation of the Society, and that the several State Societies be requested, at their next annual meeting, to determine the number of medals which each Society shall desire for the use of its members, not in excess of the number of its members, the same to be supplied at the expense of the said Societies."

The medals were authorized to be struck in bronze, silver and gold, and were sold, under the terms of the resolution, to members. At that time there were only about four hundred members of the Cincinnati, and as the medals were only presented to the members who had subscribed for them, the Centennial Medal is rare. Only two examples of the gold medal (below) are known to exist.

Centennial Medal (Obverse).
Hume #2.

Centennial Medal (Reverse).
This gold medal, one of only two known extant, is inscribed to Hamilton Fish.
Hume #2.

34mm. Three medals: Bronze, Silver and Gold.

Each disc measures 1-3/8 inches in diameter, and 1/8 inch in thickness. The obverse shows the Eagle of the Cincinnati, with the date 1783 at the left and the date 1883 at the right. The reverse bears a wreath composed of a branch of laurel leaves (left) and a branch of oak leaves (right), and above, at the outer border, the legend: Society of the Cincinnati, and below, Inst. A. D. 1783. The center of the reverse contains space for the name of the member and of his Revolutionary propositus.

The medals were struck under the direction of Brigadier General Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Secretary of the Massachusetts Cincinnati, and records show that the dies and several of the bronze and silver medals were turned over to the General Society from his estate after his death.

The price of the medal was fixed at twenty dollar for gold copies, two dollars for the silver, and one dollar and thirty cents for the bronze. On July 4, 1882, the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati voted that one copy in bronze be presented to each member of the Massachusetts Society at the expense of the Society, and that any member "desiring to have his medal struck in gold or in silver could have it so on notifying the Secretary of the Society and paying the difference in cost."

Hume's original publication, and that published in The Numismatist, included an image of one of the bronze medals, without the name of the member and his ancestor engraved in the space provided. While Hume wrote that there was no record that any copies were struck in gold, one has since surfaced with the inscription: Hamilton Fish New York Admitted July 4th 1834, shown above.