VOCABULARY TERM: PERSONAL MEDAL

Personal Medal. In a broad sense, a medallic item with a person's portrait or about a specific person. In a narrower sense a medallic item whose attachment by its owner is of a personal nature; the item may bear a portrait or inscription relating to the owner or his family.

It is in the broader sense that many numismatic writers have employed the term, usually plural. Horatio Storer, for example, in his Medicina in Nummis, divided the vast subject of medical medals into two groups – personal medals and general medals – the later divided and subdivided into many topics, as types of diseases, medical colleges, events, societies, hospitals, nursing, pharmacy and such. Personal medals are in one long alphabetical list by name of person portrayed, or the subject of the medal.

Of the 19th century U.S. Mint medals, author Robert Julian includes a category of personal medals, a loosely grouped number of medals all but four of which bear portraits. These four personal medals have a strong association for a particular person, usually in honor of that person, or the person who was the first recipient of the medal. An example is the Venus Transit Medal of 1875 (PE-9), in honor of astronomer Henry Draper who is mentioned on the reverse inscription.

Virtually all portrait medals can be classed as personal by these concepts. See portraits and portraiture.

References:
O13 {1930} Storer.
O37 {1977} Julian.

To read the complete entry on the Newman Numismatic Portal, see:
Personal Medal (https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/dictionarydetail/516473)

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