A George III Scottish silver Medal for the Pantheon Society, Edinburgh.

The Pantheon Society.
A George III unmarked silver Medal, the front with two figures in relief, the figure on the right holding a lyre, the figure on the left holding a staff with a cap of Liberty. The two figures stand to the right of a rectangular plinth with a flaming urn on the top: the plinth engraved ‘1773‘. On the reverse the medal is engraved: ‘Prize Medal presented by the Pantheon Society to Mr. Wm. Thorburn for Best Speech in point of Composition3d March 1785.’

Other very similar medals from the Pantheon Society have been noted – including one dated January 3rd 1780 presented to Mr. Alexr. Chalmers for ‘the best composition on the subject discussed‘; and another dated January 27th 1785, presented to Mr. Nicholas Sloane for ‘the best speech‘.
The Pantheon Society was a popular Edinburgh Debating Society which admitted men and women and to which James Boswell contributed. The Minutes of the society survive in Glasgow University Library for the years 1773-1779 and details of speeches for the years circa 1780 to 1792 survive in MS.9834 in the National Archives of Scotland.