NUMISMAGRAM MEDAL SELECTIONS: JANUARY 5, 2025

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V28 2025 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 28, Number 1, , Article 15

Jeremy Bostwick at Numismagram forwarded these five medals from his upload of new medallic art to his site. For all of the new items, please visit https://www.numismagram.com/inventory. -Editor

102772 | LOW COUNTRIES & AUSTRIA. Reception of the Salzburg emigrants silver Medal. Issued 1733 (48mm, 46.13 g, 11h). By Martin Holtzhey. BELGIUM FOEDERATUM, Belgia (female personification of the historical region) seated right on ship, holding pole surmounted by phrygian cap and resting elbow upon shield; grain field in background; to left, ox reclining right // PERFUGIUM MISERIS, Belgia standing facing, head slightly right, protecting the emigrants with her shield and stretching out her right hand towards an altar (around which the personifications of Faith and Mercy stand); to inner left, lion reclining left, holding bundle of arrows; in three lines in exergue, DCCC SALISBURGENS IB' / SEDES ASSIGNATÆ / MDCCXXXIII. Edge: Plain. van Loon II, 80; Whiting 473; Opitz 2953; Zöttl 2723. PCGS SP-58. Intense brilliance in the fields, with some scattered marks and irregular toning; a few trivial marks on the edge are noted merely for completeness. A fairly rare and desirable type, and the only representative observed in the PCGS census. $965.

In 1731, the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Leopold Anton von Firmian, issued an expulsion edict to drive out the remaining Protestant population. Over the next few years, this led to their subsequent resettlement in more religiously-friendly areas of Europe, such as the Dutch Republic (as recounted on this medal), and even in the American colony of Georgia.

103052 | SWITZERLAND. Bern. Silver Academic Prize Medal or "Gärtnerpfennig". Issued circa 1824/5 for outstanding pupils in the canton (35mm, 12h). LABOR OMNIBUS IDEM (work is the same for all), bees in flight around a beehive set upon an altar; sapling to the right; PRÆM DILIG (a prize for diligence) in exergue // RESPUBLICA BERNENSIS, crowned cantonal coat-of-arms of Bern within a laurel wreath. SM 704; Meier & Häusler 164. NGC MS-65. Deeply toned, with tremendous brilliance and crispness. Fairly rare in this elevated and rather attractive state of preservation, and the only such representative of the type in the NGC census. $395.

Quite popular in the canton of Bern during the 18th and early 19th centuries, the so-called "Gärtnerpfennigs," or "gardener's pennies," were a special form of scholastic prize given to deserving students for their academic achievements. They would sometimes feature a kneeling gardener on one side (accounting for the name), as the gardener was considered an allegory of diligence. Here, however, the iconography of industriousness is represented by a beehive with numerous bees flying around.

102945 | ITALY. Papal States. Pope Pius IX/Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls bronze Medal. Issued 1854 (82mm, 256.22 g, 12h). By Giuseppe Bianchi in Rome. PIVS IX PONT MAX, bust left, wearing zucchetto, mantum, and decorative pallium // PIVS IX P M BASILICAM PAVLI APOST AB INCENDIO REFECTAM SOLEMNI RITV CONSECRAVIT IV ID DEC MDCCCLIV, interior view of the basilica, from a vantage point just to the left of center. Edge: Plain; thickness: 8mm. Bartolotti, "Massimo Modulo," 7; Mazio 731; Molinari 216. Choice Mint State. Glossy dark brown surfaces, with great relief and depth. Given its large-format status, extremely rare in this advanced state of preservation, with no scuffs, distracting marks, or bruising. Includes original box of issue, though rather distressed. $1,295.

Architecture in general plays a heavy role in the medallic art of Pius IX, given the number of restorations done to religious edifices during his rather lengthy reign. In the case of this medal, the Basilica of St. Paul Outside of the Walls (of the Vatican), which suffered a near-total destruction by fire in July 1823, and which was formally reconsecrated in late 1854. Pius IX presided over the longest verified papal reign in history, serving as pope from 1846 to 1878, and also saw the loss of papal dominion over the states (parts of central mainland Italy) to which it laid claim for centuries. Following Italian unification under the King of Sardegna (Sardinia), Vittorio Emanuele II, the peninsula began to coalesce under a single regnum, leaving the rule of Pius in question.

When Rome fell, then taking a new role as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, Pius became trapped, literally and figuratively, and considered himself a prisoner in the Vatican—a standoff between the papacy and the kingdom that would last for nearly 60 years. In 1929, and brokered by then-Pope Pius XI and leader of the Fascist Party, Benito Mussolini, the Lateran Treaty ended the longstanding feud between the two factions over the sovereignty of the papacy within the kingdom. The treaty gave the Vatican City to the papacy—a separate city-state headed by the pope within the city of Rome itself—as well as compensation to the papacy by the Italian government for the loss of the territory within the former papal states.

102882 | GERMANY. Confirmation silver Medal. Issued circa 1850 (28mm, 10.65 g, 12h). By Drentwett in Augsburg. SIE EMPFIENGEN DEN HEIL. GEIST (thou shall receive the Holy Spirit), confirmation scene: Bishop, wearing miter and holding crozier, standing left, confirming youth to right; attendants around; radiant dove above // DER GEIST IST'S DER LEBENDIG MACHT / JOHANN 6 V 63 (it is the Spirit that makes life, —adapted from John 6:63), radiant dove. Edge: Plain. GPH –; Forster –. PCGS SP-64. Highly brilliant and mirrored, with a great iridescence sprinkled throughout. $295.

While one may now purchase a silver round, usually struck to the weight of one ounce and with a variety of religions-themed designs, as a gift for a child upon said child's baptism or confirmation, the practice is in no way modern. In 18th and 19th century Germany in particular, the practice was commonplace, with mints in Nürnberg and, later on, the Loos workshop in Berlin and the Drentwett workshop in Augsburg, striking countless tokens and medals to be used as baptismal (amd related) gifts. While the Nürnberg issues tended to verge upon actual coinage, such as the multiple and fractional gold ducat agnus Dei—or Lamb of God—issues, or billon kerzendreier that had more of an ecclesiastic token status, those later from the Loos and Drentwett workshops were fully in the medallic realm, with the firm mixing and matching various obverse and reverse dies with numerous Biblical scenes. One of the leading references for this area of medallic art is Kreß auction 115 from 1960, which presented the combined collections of Marie Luise Goppel and Dr. Plum-Holler, commonly referred to as Goppel-Plum-Holler, or simply GPH.

103060 | UNITED STATES & SPAIN. Carlos III/American Bankers' Association bronze Medal. Issued 1966 for the 13th annual meeting in Madrid (60mm, 162.66 g, 12h). CAROL III D G HISP ET IND R / 1716-1788, garlanded, armored, and draped bust right // XIII ANNVAL MEETING / MADRID MAY 1966, THE / AMERICAN / BANKERS / ASSOCIATION in four lines within garlanded wreath. Edge: Plain. Choice Gem Mint State. Deep brown surfaces, with intense relief on the obverse. An impressive specimen for any collector of Spanish and/or Latin American issues, with an obverse clearly inspired by the portrait coinage of Carlos (Charles) III. $195.

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