Porfirio Diaz - William Taft Medal. Meeting (1909)

In 1909 a historic meeting between Porfirio Diaz and U.S. president William Howard Taft was held at the border, in the cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. It was the first meeting between a Mexican president and a U.S. one, a milestone in the diplomacy between the two countries.

This bronze medal commemorates that meeting. The gathering sought to show the good relationship between the two nations and to project the image of a stable and respected Mexico, at a time when Diaz's regime was beginning to show signs of exhaustion.

The piece belongs to the figures category. It is testimony to a high point of Porfirian diplomacy, barely a year before the Mexican Revolution put an end to Diaz's long government and transformed the country entirely.

The medal commemorating the historic meeting between Porfirio Díaz and William Taft in 1909 recalls one of the most talked-about diplomatic encounters of the era: the first time a president of Mexico and one of the United States met face to face at the border. Struck that same year in bronze, it became a piece coveted by those who collect the Porfiriato period.

It measures 37.99 millimeters in diameter and weighs 22.45 grams. Being a bronze medal, its value does not come from the metal but from what it celebrates: the event that gave rise to it, its age, and demand among collectors of the subject. Condition and the rarity of the issue are what define the price, so it pays to look for examples with no scratches or aggressive cleaning, with natural patina, and to check whether they retain the original case or certificate, since both add collector value.

For the collector, this medal is cataloged as Grove, Medals of México, II #P-139b. Explore more pieces in the Mexican numismatics catalog and learn to read the marks in the guide on how to identify Mexican mints.