The hard asset market: The mystery of medallions

 

Medallion of Alexander the Great C 215 AD

Alexander the Great traveled with engravers who would immortalize his accomplishments on gems and medallions of gold and silver.  The Roman Emperperors commemorated their accomplishments on medallions in gold, silver, and bronze.  And many of them collected medallions of other emperors and of famous Greek Kings.

The Renaissance princes collected medallions of the Romans and the Greeks and then had medallions struck to commemorate their own acheivements by great Renaissance artists.

In the early seventeenth century in Prague, Jewish goldsmiths created a series of large gold medallions portraying some of history's great Monarchs (so called Judenmedailles) which became very popular collector items amongst the developing rich merchant class.

The Kings and Queens of England collected medallions of the Greeks and Romans and the Byzantine Emperors as well as Renaissance medallions -  and then commissioned current artists to strike medallions of their own.  Queen Anne commioned Isaac Newton to curate a series of medallions commemorating her achievements and Newton himself designed some of these medallions.

In the eigteenth century Swiss Engraver Jules Dassier engraved a complete series of British Monarchs in bronze - a more affordable metal - wich became a popular collecting item for an even greater spectrum of middle class collector.

Napoleon commissioned Vivant Denon to curate a series of medallions to commemorate his achievements and Denon hired a stable of some of the periods great artists to both design and engrave these medallions.  These were made in bronze for general consumption, in silver for the wealthy and a very few of each medal were struck in gold for the Emperor and his closest circle.

In fact, the great cabinets of Europe were devoted mostly to medallions.  Coins of antiquity were of course included, but medallions comprised the greater part of the famed cabinets as they tended to be larger, more elaborate, closely associated with events of note and often engraved by well known artists.

So how is it then that a rare silver 5 franc coin of Napoleon now sells at many times the price of a rare silver medal that is larger, more beautifully engraved and of considerable historical interest?

Ah, but that is the amazing opportunity that lies within the hard asset market for the informed inverster.