This medal commemorates the Franco-American Union, formed in 1875, which planned and ultimately brought about the creation of the Statue of Liberty. The statue was a gift of friendship from France to the U.S.A. in recognition of the friendship established between the two nations during the American Revolution. The Union agreed that the monument would represent the work of both nations. The statue would be made by the French and transported to the U.S.A. and the Americans would build its pedestal. The sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904) started work immediately. The statue was dedicated on 28th October 1886.

The obverse (primary face) of the medal shows two women, symbolising France and America, seated in an open boat, rowed by an angel wearing a phrygian bonnet (a symbol of the French Revolution). In the distance on the left is the Statue of Liberty. The reverse shows the shields of America and France resting on a laurel branch, with a profile portrait of Bartholdi, facing left, in a medallion between them.

Roty, a leading French medallist of the late nineteenth century, is credited by the contemporary critic, Roger Marx, as being responsible for the revival of medallic art in France at that time. Roty executed many official commissions, including this commemorative medal for the Monnaie de Paris. Despite the obverse of the medal being more densely packed with figures, the Statue of Liberty, a boat and several inscriptions than some of his more elegant compositions, Roty's control of the medium maintains clarity of design and purpose.