MEDALS WITNESSES OF HISTORY
Medals are lesser-known numismatic items than coins and they are often confused since the line between the two categories is not intuitive and, contrary to what one might think, actually rests on legal factors.
Coins are only issued by a sovereign authority and constitute a means of payment with “liberating” power, meaning they “liberate” from a debt and cannot be refused by the creditor in payment of that debt.
Medals on the other hand can be issued by private parties, their function is purely to celebrate or commemorate contemporary or past events or people and they are therefore included in the category of objects collected solely for their historical significance and/or the artistic quality of their design and manufacture.
This function also demands a different appearance: medals are generally larger in diameter and thickness than coins and depict effigies or representations in far greater relief on shiny if not lustrous surfaces. Medals were of course issued in much smaller runs than coins and are therefore far rarer; nonetheless, medal collecting is less common than coin collecting. This is partly because it is very difficult to compile a medal catalogue and therefore clearly define a possible collection. One exception to this rule is the annual pontifical medal, a particular series issued by the Catholic Church which has continued, mostly without interruption, since 1605. The Papacy
has always been one of the institutions most represented in the issue of medals. Some of these issues are even “official”, that is, promoted by the Holy See. Of these, those coined to be distributed by the Pontiff himself on 29 June each year at the traditional events for the Feasts of Saints Peter and Paul stand out thanks to their recurrent and regular release.
This annual release, which falls to the elected Pope on that date, always bears the year of papacy of that Pope and is issued in the three metals typical of monetisation: gold, silver and copper. Since these are gifts, the
gold medals are reserved for the most important people the Pope meets with and far fewer are therefore coined than in the other metals, which makes them much rarer from a collector’s perspective.
The annual medals always bear an effigy of the Pope on the obverse and a depiction of the most important religious, political or administrative event of the year on the reverse. A collection of annual pontifical medals therefore represents in images an extraordinary succession of events that covers four centuries: a tangible testimony to the history of the church and the Papacy.
See as an example the medal of Pope Gregory XVI recently auctioned at Asta Bolaffi. The same auction included another gold medal of great interest but from to an entirely different geographical and temporal context: we are taken over the Baltic Sea and approximately two centuries back in time. This is a “matrimonial” medal, an object that was given by the couple to the wedding attendants and was again produced in gold, silver or bronze depending on the economic resources of the couple and the status of the recipients. This is a historic testimony of a custom from Scandinavia and is a little masterpiece, created in approximately 1660, when Baroque art was at its peak in Germany. No written piece on medals, no matter how short, would be complete without a mention of the famous Venetian oselle, an example of which is published below, taken from the twice-cited Bolaffi auction on which we will no longer dwell since the topic has already been examined at length in no. 2 of this series which is available for anybody wishing to satisfy their curiosity on the matter.
The oselle were not medals of merit, this function was reserved for the lesser-known medals of the Venetian Senate which were awarded to those who distinguished themselves with particular acts of civil and military valour. They were a sign of thanks and homage, for example, given to ambassadors from the European powers when they left their service in the Republic of Venice to return home. This was a series in gold that again represented a historic testimony to events, facts and personalities whose memory would be lost among the thousands of pages of archives left to us by the Republic of Venice. But that is another story, which we trust we will be able to tell you another time.
by Carlo Barzan
Coins are only issued by a sovereign authority and constitute a means of payment with “liberating” power, meaning they “liberate” from a debt and cannot be refused by the creditor in payment of that debt.
Medals on the other hand can be issued by private parties, their function is purely to celebrate or commemorate contemporary or past events or people and they are therefore included in the category of objects collected solely for their historical significance and/or the artistic quality of their design and manufacture.
This function also demands a different appearance: medals are generally larger in diameter and thickness than coins and depict effigies or representations in far greater relief on shiny if not lustrous surfaces. Medals were of course issued in much smaller runs than coins and are therefore far rarer; nonetheless, medal collecting is less common than coin collecting. This is partly because it is very difficult to compile a medal catalogue and therefore clearly define a possible collection. One exception to this rule is the annual pontifical medal, a particular series issued by the Catholic Church which has continued, mostly without interruption, since 1605. The Papacy
has always been one of the institutions most represented in the issue of medals. Some of these issues are even “official”, that is, promoted by the Holy See. Of these, those coined to be distributed by the Pontiff himself on 29 June each year at the traditional events for the Feasts of Saints Peter and Paul stand out thanks to their recurrent and regular release.
This annual release, which falls to the elected Pope on that date, always bears the year of papacy of that Pope and is issued in the three metals typical of monetisation: gold, silver and copper. Since these are gifts, the
gold medals are reserved for the most important people the Pope meets with and far fewer are therefore coined than in the other metals, which makes them much rarer from a collector’s perspective.
The annual medals always bear an effigy of the Pope on the obverse and a depiction of the most important religious, political or administrative event of the year on the reverse. A collection of annual pontifical medals therefore represents in images an extraordinary succession of events that covers four centuries: a tangible testimony to the history of the church and the Papacy.
See as an example the medal of Pope Gregory XVI recently auctioned at Asta Bolaffi. The same auction included another gold medal of great interest but from to an entirely different geographical and temporal context: we are taken over the Baltic Sea and approximately two centuries back in time. This is a “matrimonial” medal, an object that was given by the couple to the wedding attendants and was again produced in gold, silver or bronze depending on the economic resources of the couple and the status of the recipients. This is a historic testimony of a custom from Scandinavia and is a little masterpiece, created in approximately 1660, when Baroque art was at its peak in Germany. No written piece on medals, no matter how short, would be complete without a mention of the famous Venetian oselle, an example of which is published below, taken from the twice-cited Bolaffi auction on which we will no longer dwell since the topic has already been examined at length in no. 2 of this series which is available for anybody wishing to satisfy their curiosity on the matter.
The oselle were not medals of merit, this function was reserved for the lesser-known medals of the Venetian Senate which were awarded to those who distinguished themselves with particular acts of civil and military valour. They were a sign of thanks and homage, for example, given to ambassadors from the European powers when they left their service in the Republic of Venice to return home. This was a series in gold that again represented a historic testimony to events, facts and personalities whose memory would be lost among the thousands of pages of archives left to us by the Republic of Venice. But that is another story, which we trust we will be able to tell you another time.
by Carlo Barzan