Before the people of the civilized world collected coins, they collected medals. One of the most important modern collectors of medals was Louis XV of France. Now, I say modern collectors knowing fully well that Louis XV ruled France between 1715 and 1774, but he is a modern collector if you consider who the early collectors were.

The ancient Romans were avid collectors of Greek medals. Medals are really interesting, and have been struck to celebrate almost everything that can be celebrated.

For those of modest means, many medals have been struck in bronze and silver. There have been very rare medals struck in gold and platinum. In the mid to late 19th century, medals were struck in a very rare metal called aluminum which was extracted from bauxite in France.

In fact, because aluminum could only be produced in such small amounts, it was considered very rare. Napoleon III, who ruled France from 1848 to 1870, as president then emperor, had a huge service of flatware made for the imperial dinner table from aluminum. It amazed all who saw it including Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, her consort.

The medals I will show you here are typical of what one can find in the coin exonumia market today. Exonumia are items which are coin related, but not in or of themselves coins. Medals fall into this collecting category. And like coins, you can collect whatever you want to collect.

Some people like Napoleonica. Others like kings, queens, or a variety of historic events. Some love art and the medalic art of the pieces themselves. People can collect what they like, and medals number in the hundreds of millions.

The first medal I am showing you features Leopold II, the King of the Belgians, in bronze. The medal was struck for the Universal Exposition held at Anvers in 1894.

Such a medal would be collected by someone interested in world fairs. The first world fair was the Crystal Palace Exhibition held in London in 1851. It was organized and sponsored by Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, who did so much to advance industrial progress and trade in England.

Leopold II could also be included in a collection of “Great Cads of the World.” He owned the Republic of the Congo as his personal real estate from 1873 to 1908. He exploited it for its human and mineral resources to support his palaces and his mistresses.

During his rule over the Congo, every bullet used by his armed forces had to be accounted for in a horrible way. For each shot fired by his army, the right hand of the victim had to be produced! His horrible reign as President of the Congo Free State inspired Joseph Conrad’s great novel of unabashed evil, The Heart of Darkness.

The next photograph shows the classic medal, designed by Benedetto Pistrucci, for the great allied victory over Napoleon I at the Battle of Waterloo. The medal features the four principal leaders of the anti-Napoleonic Alliance: George, Prince of Wales of England who ruled for his father, George III, who was quite mad at the end of his reign; Francis II who was Emperor of Austria; and Napoleon’s father-in-law, Alexander I who was Czar of Russia; and Fredrick William who was King of Prussia and whose wife, Queen Louise (d.1809) had captured Napoleon’s heart. But that’s another story.

The third image is the reverse of the beautiful Pistrucci medal.

It depicts a charge of ancient heroic types. Both sides of the medal are rimmed by Classic Allegorical figures. After all, this was the age of Neo-Classicism.

Figure four is a bronze medal of George V of Hannover struck in 1855. As the eldest surviving son of George III in 1837, he thought that he should have been made King of England, but his older brother, the Duke of Kent had a daughter named Victoria. In most of the Germanies (at one time Germany had more then 300 thrones of various sorts), there was something called the Salic Law which forbids a mere woman to inherit the crown.

3.) The reverse of Benedetto Pistrucci’s Waterloo Victory Medal circa 1815.	4.) Bronze Medal issued by the much disliked son of England’s George III, George V of Hannover (not to be confused with much loved George V of England who ruled from 1910 to 1936. This George V was George’s III great-great-grandson.)	5.) This medal honoring Rafael Joseffy was by Victor D. Brenner of Lincoln Cent Fame.	6.) This medal features the popular Regeant of France, the Duke of Orleans.
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7.) This handsome French medal honors Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Exposition of 1893.	8.) This handsome medal of Gustavus Adolphus War struck in 1631 and was done by the Great Dadler.	9.) This Art Deco medal of the King of Thule celebrates the 100th Anniversary of Iceland’s Parliament, The Althing.	10.) The mourning medalic issue of Carlos I from 1908.

This meant that the unpopular Prince George could be packed off to the unloved German Kingdom of Hannover, and the well loved Victoria could be crowned Queen of England. Many medals were struck showing George rushing off to his German kingdom to celebrate the splitting of the crowns of England and Hannover.

This fifth medal depicts Rafael Joseffy. To me the most interesting factor of this four sided and boxed piece is that it is by Victor D. Brenner whose Lincoln cent has been in circulation since 1909.

The sixth medal shown here features Louis Henry, Duke of Orleans, who was Prince Regent of France during the minority of his nephew Louis XV. This pewter medal, by Du Vivier and his brother, depicts the Duke in his full bottomed wig. Hence important, even today, people are called “Big Wigs.”

Louis Henry was a good guy. He was a friend of Voltaire, an intellectual, kind to his wife, chased women only as a hobby, and was not interested in personal power. He turned the rulership of France over to his nephew at the proper time and died far too young.

Medal seven depicts Columbus in bronze. It was struck by the French Society of Civil Engineers and celebrates their visit to the Columbian Exposition in August and October of 1893. The portrait of Columbus is the most handsome I have ever seen. What is very special about this medal is that it still has it’s original leather case.

The eighth medal depicts King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, General-in-Chief of the Protestant League during Europe’s Thirty Years War (1618-1648). This great 1631 medal is by Steven Dadler. It is interesting to note a few facts here. Gustavus Adolphus’ greatest friend and supporter was Cardinal Richelieu of Catholic France. Politics makes strange bedfellows indeed. Gustavus Adolphus was also killed the following year at the battle of Lutzen.

The ninth image here, which never really circulated, is of a medalic coin of ten Krona of Iceland, which was struck at the Saxon Mint in 1930 to commemorate the 1000th Anniversary of the world’s oldest Parliament, Iceland’s Althing. The obverse of the medalic piece is pure Art Deco and depicts “The King of Thule With Two Nude Figures.” I’ll let Freud figure that one out. Only 10,000 of these were struck as part of a set of three which I have in their original box.

The last medalic piece shown here is also housed in its original box with its four companion pieces. The obverse (front) design of the set of five pieces features Carlos I and Amelia, King and Queen of Portugal from 1889 to 1908. These memorial pieces sadly mark the king’s death. The designs are like the “400th Anniversary of the Portuguese Discovery of an All Water Route to India by Vasco da Gama” coins of 1898. This is a sad medalic series in its black box.