Quote: SpyrobaroQuote: CommanderGameSomeone: "Here's the project I've been working on for a while, hope you like it!
Me: "WOW UR TERRIBLE IVE SEEN MANURE DO BETTER"
What the **** did you just ****ing say about me, you little *****?
Various prize medals with obverse designs, suspension rings and ribbons typical of medals intended to be draped over the head and hung from the neck
The main or front surface of a medal is termed the obverse, and may contain a portrait, pictorial scene, or other image along with an inscription. The reverse, or back surface of the medal, is not always used and may be left blank or may contain a secondary design. It is not uncommon to find only an artistic rendering on the obverse, while all details and other information for the medal are inscribed on the reverse. The rim is found only occasionally employed to display an inscription such as a motto, privy mark, engraver symbol, assayer’s marking, or a series number.
Medals that are intended to be hung from a ribbon also include a small suspension piece at the crest with which to loop a suspension ring through. It is through the ring that a ribbon is run or folded so the medal may hang pendent. Medals pinned to the breast use only a small cut of ribbon that is attached to a top bar where the brooch pin is affixed. Top bars may be hidden under the ribbon so they are not visible, be a plain device from which the ribbon attaches, or may even be decorative to complement the design on the medal. Some top bars are elaborate and contain a whole design unto themselves.
Bronze has been the most common material employed for medals, due to its fair price range, durability, ease with which to work when casting, and the ample availability However, a wide range of other media have also been used. Rarer metals have been employed, such as silver, platinum, and gold, when wishing to add value beyond the mere artistic depiction, as well as base metals and alloys such as copper, brass, iron, aluminum, lead, zinc, nickel, and pewter. Medals that are made with inexpensive material might be gilded, silver plated, chased, or finished in a variety of other ways to improve their appearance. Medals have also been made of rock, gemstone, ivory, glass, porcelain, terra cotta, coal, wood, paper, enamel, lacquerware, and plastics.
History[edit]
Bronze medal of Isabella d'Este, princess and patron of Renaissance humanists, distributed as a gift.
Silver Geuzen medal commemorating the Capture of Brielle in 1572 by the Sea Beggars; this was produced commercially
The first known instance of a medal being awarded comes from the historian Josephus who, writing long after the event, accounts that in the fourth century BCE, the High Priest Jonathan led the Hebrews in aid of Alexander the Great, and that in return for this, Alexander "...sent to Jonathan... honorary awards, as a golden button, which it is custom to give the king's kinsmen." Roman emperors used both military awards of medals, and political gifts of medallions that were like very large coins, usually in gold or silver, and die-struck like coins.[7] Both these and actual golden coins were often set as pieces of jewellery, worn by both sexes.
The bracteate is a type of thin gold medal, usually plain on the reverse, found in Northern Europe from the so-called "Dark Ages" or Migration Period. They often have suspension loops and were clearly intended to be worn on a chain as jewellery. They imitate, at a distance, Roman imperial coins and medallions, but have the heads of gods, animals, or other designs.[8] The Liudhard medalet, produced around 600AD in Anglo-Saxon England, is an isolated example, known from a single copy, of a Christian medal, featuring an inscription naming Liudhard (or "Saint Letard"), the first priest among the Anglo-Saxons, and most likely presented to converts. The surviving example is mounted for wearing as jewellery.
In Europe, from the late Middle Ages on, it became common for sovereigns, nobles, and later, intellectuals to commission medals to be given simply as gifts to their political allies to either maintain or gain support of an influential person. The medals made be made in a range of metals, such as gold, silver-gilt, silver, bronze, and lead, depending on the status of the recipient. They were typically up to about three inches across, and usually featured the head of the donor on the obverse, surrounded by an inscription with their name and title, and their emblem on the reverse, with a learned motto inscribed round the edges. Such medals were not usually intended to be worn, although they might have been set as pendants on a chain. From the 16th century onward, medals were made, both by rulers for presentation and private enterprise for sale, to commemorate specific events, including military battles and victories, and from this grew the practice of awarding military medals specifically to combatants, though initially only a few of the much higher-ranking officers.
Medal of the Emperor John VIII Palaiologos during his visit to Florence, by Pisanello (1438). The legend reads, in Greek: "John the Palaiologos, basileus and autokrator of the Romans".
The medieval revival seems to have begun around 1400 with the extravagant French prince Jean, Duc de Berry, who commissioned a number of large classicising medals that were probably produced in very small numbers, or a unique cast. Only casts in bronze from the originals in precious metal survive, although it is known that at least some medals were also set with jewels, and these may well have been worn on a chain.[9] At the same period, the first known post-classical medal commemorating a victory was struck for Francesco Carrara (Novello) on the occasion of the capture of Padua in 1390. The Italian artist Pisanello, generally agreed to be the finest medallist of the Renaissance, began in 1438 with a medal, celebrating the unprecedented visit of the Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaiologos to Italy. This was presumably a commercial venture, but his later medals were mostly commissioned for distribution as gifts by rulers or nobles. Like almost all early Renaissance medals, it was cast rather than die-struck. With each successive cast the medal became slightly smaller, and the numbers that could be produced were probably not large. A lead "proof" was probably often used. The association between medals and the classical revival began to take a rather different form, and the exchange of medals became associated with Renaissance Humanism. Princes would send humanist writers and scholars medals in recognition of their work, and the humanists began to make their own medals, normally in bronze, to send to their patrons and peers.[10] The fashion remained restricted to Italy until near the end of the 15th century, when it spread to other countries. By the 16th century, medals were increasingly produced by rulers or cities for propaganda purposes.[11] In 1550, a die-stamping machine, using steel dies, was introduced in Augsburg, Germany, and soon this process became standard. The artist now cut an intaglio die rather than modelling in relief.[12]