The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 1, January 7, 2007, Article 16

COINS AND MEDALS OUTLAST MEMORIES

Recent E-Sylum items on sales of The Order of Canada and Victoria
Cross medals point out how true it is that numismatic items far
outlast their original owners and their heirs.  Dick Johnson writes:
"In last Sunday's newspaper was a flyer from P&G, the Proctor and
Gamble Company.  Great old firm. They support the Special Olympics
for handicapped children. Great policy. On the cover of the flyer
they show a proud handicapped boy holding up a medal on a neckribbon
he apparently won. Excellent.

"Then why am I complaining? The headline reads "Memories Outlive
Medals." That's wrong. Medals are noted for outlasting just about
everything made by man in this world. Those Special Olympics medals
will, in all probability, outlast or outlive P&G!

"Empirical evidence shows that coins and medals have survived longer
than other art objects, architecture, written communication, and just
about anything man has made. Destruction has obliterated these. Compare
that with perhaps hundreds of thousands (millions?) of existing ancient
coins. Cave paintings are about the only thing older that have come
down to the present with pictorial data intact.

"The vicissitudes of time -- fires and floods -- have destroyed books,
libraries, paintings, statues, buildings, documents. It is difficult
to find an artifact that is as compelling as an ancient coin with its
image and caption. We know what Cleopatra looked like, and Julius
Caesar. Their contemporary portraits are found on coins. We know what
Columbus looked like. His portrait is on a contemporary medal.

"In many instances the only known portrait of some rulers have survived
only on the coins they had struck bearing their likenesses! (If you doubt
me, page through any encyclopedia to find an obscure king. Chances are it
is illustrated with his coin.) It is like the dinosaurs are gone but a
little burrowing rodent survived for eons. Little coins and medals have
survived while other objects didn't make it.

"The purpose of a medal, particularly souvenir or historical medal, is
to recall those memories while the recipient or first buyer is still
alive. After that a medal becomes an indestructible document of history.
Some ancient coins have lasted more than 2,600 years. That's longevity!
No doubt they could last another equal time, or perhaps even 10,000 years.
Man has a passion for saving these numismatic items. They could reveal
an event to an intelligent person at some indeterminate time in the
future.

"Sorry, P&G your headline is exactly backwards - Medals Outlive Memories."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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