NUMISMAGRAM MEDAL SELECTIONS: DECEMBER 4, 2022

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V25 2022 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 25, Number 49, December 4, 2022, Article 22

Jeremy Bostwick at Numismagram forwarded these four standouts from his recent addition of new material to his website. For all of the new items, including an exceptional Admiral Vernon medal and a WWI-era British dog tag on a German East African rupie, please visit https://www.numismagram.com/inventory. -Editor

102217 | CUBA. Honradez Royal Tobacco Factory tin Medal. Issued circa 1859 (57mm, 88.15 g, 12h). PLAZA DE SANTA CLARA No 83 Y 85 TALLERES, CALLES DEL SOL No 17, DE SAN YGNACIO No 88 / Y CERRADA DE SANTA CLARA ENTRE SAN YGNACIO Y CUBA / DETALL, CALLE DE CUBA No 83 DE POSITO PRINCIPAL PARA MENUDEO CALLE DEL OBISPO No 15 / DEPOSITOS SECUNDARIOS, CALZADA REAL DEL MONTE No 154 / Y CALLE DE SAN RAFAEL ENTRE CONSULADO É INDUSTRIA / DIRECCION GENERAL / Y ESCRITORIO / CALLE DE SAN YGNACIO No 90 / HABANA, female personification of Justice standing facing, holding scales / REAL FABRICA LA HONRADEZ / AGRACIADA ESPECIALMENTE POR S. M. CON EL USO DE SUS REALES ARMAS / GRAN MANUFACTURA DE CIGARROS Y PICADURAS DE LUIS SUSINI É HIJO / PROVEEDORES DE LA REAL CASA &a. &a. / HABANA, complex Cuban coat-of-arms. Edge: Some scattered discoloring, otherwise plain. Gem Mint State. Wholly brilliant and lustrous, with a great cartwheel nature to the brilliance. Includes original paper casing with design of the medal on each side, though somewhat distressed. $365.

Cuban cigars have long been the standard bearer of a fine tobacco product, and Don Luis Susini's royal factory in Havana sought to keep that high standard through not just the firm's name (la honradez meaning "honesty" or "integrity"), but also through what was, at the time, revolutionary packaging. Counterfeiting was commonplace and copyright protection was virtually non-existent, so Susini turned to packaging in order to differentiate himself from fraudulent products, with the firm using color lithography to produce some of the world's first colored labels.

102203 | GREAT BRITAIN. England. Henry VIII silver faux-engraved Jeton or Gaming Counter. Issued circa 1635–1710, or slightly later. Series 5: Sovereigns of England: Half length (25mm, 1.83 g, 5h). By the school of Simon van der Passe. HENRY VIII KING OF ENGLAND FRANCE & IRELAND, mantled bust facing, wearing plumed cap and holding scepter / Crowned coat-of-arms within Collar of the Garter; all within elaborate border. Cf. Mitchener 4864-5 (obverse with a different style and legend). About Uncirculated. Lightly toned. A fairly rare type from a popular series. $495.

Gambling and games of chance have served as a form of entertainment and excitement during much of recorded history in one way or another, and many of these games necessitate some form of accounting during play. In early modern Europe, jetons were commonly employed for these purposes and allowed for skilled engravers to promote their artistry. One such engraver was Simon van der Passe, born in Utrecht circa 1585.

Van der Passe worked in England from 1616–1621/2, having founded a school after being exempted from the royal monopoly given previously to Nicholas Hilliard. This exemption allowed for the "graving and imprinting medailles" and small portraits of the king, and van der Passe utilized his technique for the production of numerous series of jetons or gaming counters, initially employing portraits of the Stuarts, James I and later Charles I with his wife, Henrietta Maria. Though Simon would return to Holland in 1621/2, his London-based school continued under the management of his brother, William. Subsequent issues of these jetons would feature Gustav Adolph and his wife, Maria Eleonora, the sovereigns of England, 'classical portraits' of historical and biblical figures, 'street cries,' and the Commonwealth.

Of even greater interest and debate among numismatists over the past century has been the method of manufacture of these jetons. Their appearance at first glance would lead one to believe that they have been individually engraved owing to their incuse design. It is thought that, in fact, these ornate counters were skillfully cast and polished in order to generate this 'faux-engraved' effect.

102245 | INDIA. Bengal Photographic Society silver Award Medal. Engraved and awarded to Sir William de Wiveleslie Abney in 1873 (51mm, 64.38 g, 12h). By J. S. & A. B. Wyon. Seminude female seated right, holding flower and plaque adorned with geometric design; lily pads in foreground below, palace arches behind / BENGAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY, garlanded laurel wreath with inscription in four lines in varying scripts: "FOR HELIOTYPES / To / Lieutt. W. de W. Abney." Edge: Plain. Puddester 869.5. Choice About Uncirculated. Deeply toned and with a good deal of brilliance radiating from beneath; just a few light edge bruises are noted for completeness. Includes box of issue. A rare early award from this society, awarded less than two decades after the society's founding. $645.

An English astronomer, chemist, and photographer, William de Wiveleslie Abney was born in 1843 and educated at the Royal Military Academy. He would go on to serve with the Royal Engineers in India, where he would continue his interest in the still-recent technology behind photography. His background in chemistry and astronomy allowed him to combine all of these skills, such as with his development of a "dry" photographic emulsion (as opposed to the normal "wet"). It was with this dry emulsion that he photographed the transit of Venus across the sun during an expedition in Egypt. This prize medal, one of the earliest awarded of the type, was issued during Abney's time in India, and honored his work on heliotypes–a process involving the transferal of images from photographic negatives to hardened gelatin plates, the latter of which could then be used to create lithographs in printing.

102236 | UNITED STATES. Mark Twain uniface bronze Medal. Issued 1935. Commemorating the centennial of the birth of the famous writer, Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) (76mm, 186.58 g, 12h). By J. Kilenyi for Robbins Co. in Attleboro, MA. SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS / MARK TWAIN / CENTENNIAL / 1835–1935, bust right, in frock coat. Edge: Plain. Cf. HK 775 (for a smaller version in 38mm); Marqusee 224. Mint State. Olive-brown surfaces, with a slight matte nature. Very rare, especially in this larger, more impressive format. $345.

Born in Missouri in 1835, Samuel Langhorne Clemens arrived at his famous pseudonym from his early job as an apprentice pilot on the Mississippi River. Within this vocation, the leadman on a boat would shout "mark twain" when the vessel had reached safe waters, with the phrase equivalent to two fathoms deep (one fathom being a unit of measure equal to approximately six feet—the wingspan of an adult man's outstretched arms). Twain would become one of America's most celebrated humorists, journalists, and authors, with some of his best-known works pertaining to American frontier life in the 19th century. Quite famously associated with Halley's Comet, he joked that "...I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year [1910], and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'" Indeed, he was born two weeks after the comet's perihelion in 1835 and died the day after the comet's next perihelion in 1910.