Historical Medals - Coronation Medals

Until our current era, medals have always been worth exactly their weight in precious metal - just like coins. However, because of their rarity, beauty, and historical importance, medals rather than currency comprised the greater part of most advanced collections. Royal Proclamation medals were usually crafted by celebrated artists of the era. They were often sculpted in high relief, in tiny mintages, to mark interesting and important historical events. A coin might be considered rare if only a few thousand were minted. A medal is rare if only a few hundred were minted. Aesthetically, the main difference between Silver and Gold medals lies in the toning. Gold is inert. Gold medals have toning, but it is subtle. Silver is reactive. Silver medal toning can vary greatly from a dull grey to a spendid rainbow effect. And it is very difficult ot capture toning in photographs because the colors change dramatically according to the angle and intensity of light as it passes across the metal surface. A beautivfully toned silver medal is often far more pleasing - and rare - than a perfectly preserved speccimen. However, it's most satisfying to find a medal that has both characteristics.

From the time of the Stuart kings through to Victoria,

gold coronation medals were presented to the royal family and friends invited to the coronation ceremony. Silver medals were tossed to the members of parliament, judges and other dignitaries who lined the front rows of the coronation procession, as well as being handed out to esteemed servants of the Royal Household. Bronze medals were tossed to the rest of the rabble. Edward VII ended the practice of tossing medals as he thought it undignified to see judges and members of parliament diving on the ground to retrieve the precious metal. James I struck only a silver coronation medal. Charles I was the first to have a very small number of coronation medals struck in gold. Master engraver Nicolas Briot who was mintmaster at Paris under Louis XIII later fled to England where he introduced the coin press to Charles I. He was appointed mintmaster from 1633-1641. Regarding the medals at Charles I coronation: the diarist Samuel Pepys noted "And three times the King at Arms went to the three open places on the scaffold, and proclaimed, that if any one could show any reason why Charles Stewart should not be King of England, that now he should come and speak. And a Generall Pardon also was read by the Lord Chancellor, and meddalls flung up and down by my Lord Cornwallis, of silver, but I could not come by any." During the English Civil War (1642-51) both the Parliamentary and Royalist factions commissioned medals to be given in recognition of soldierly valour. The gift of medals, a practise in Britain since the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), was ritualized. Thomas Rawlins, a pupil of Briot, was appointed Chief Engraver at the Mint by Charles I in 1643 and remained loyal to the king even after he had fled London. In May 1643 Charles ordered a medal made which would be worn 'on the breast of every man who shall be certified under the hands of their Commanders-in-Chief to have done us faithful service in the forlorn hope'. It was also commanded 'that no soldier at anytime do sell nor any of our subjects presume to buy or wear any of these said badges other than they to whom we shall give the same'. In 1661 Charles II invited John Roettiers and his brother Joseph (and subsequently a third brother Philip) to join the British Royal Mint and by 1662 Roettiers was one of the mint's chief engravers. He produced the official coronation medals of James II (1685) and William and Mary (1689). He died in 1703 and was buried in the Tower. Roettiers was widely credited as one of the best engravers ever employed at the English mint. Samuel Pepys declared his medals to be "some of the finest pieces of work, in embossed work, that I ever did see in my life" (Diary, 26 March 1666). His sons James Roettiers (1663–1698) and Norbert Roettiers (1665–1727) were also famed engravers and medallists both in England and France.