Featured 1858 Cathedral Medal by Jacques Weiner

The Young Numismatist auction is a fundraiser held at the ANA Summer Seminar to help fund YN Summer Seminar scholarships. All of the auction items are donated and no one is looking to get a "good deal" on anything they purchase. However, being new to the Summer Seminar and YN auctions, I didn't know that various bidding antics were quite typical and that there were actually "no rules" during the auctions!

So when I saw this medal come up for bid, I raised my bidder number, but then someone else began bidding on it. What I didn't know was that my good buddy Todd Pollock was the other bidder and that he was using a "counterfeit" bidder number he had created of MY OWN bidder number - which meant in essence, I was bidding against myself! Once I discovered that the other bidder was Todd and that he was using my own number, he "graciously" dropped out, but there was another real bidder, so we both kept bidding higher and higher, until finally I won out.

This is the beautiful Cathedral medal that I won:




It depicts both the interior and exterior of the Church of St. Genevieve (Pantheon) in striking detail. The building depicted was first built as a Cathedral to honor St. Genevieve, a Saint who in 451 supposedly led a “prayer marathon” that saved the city of Paris from Atilla and the Huns. The Cathedral was secularized during the French Revolution, changing its name to the Pantheon. It then served as a burial site for distinguished French citizens such as Voltaire, Jean-Paul Marat and Jean0Jacques Rousseau. This large medal itself features incredible attention to detail and utilizes 3-D perspective on the reverse, making the eye feel it is actually looking deep within the Cathedral while looking at the medal.

In 1872, 14 years after completing this medal, Jacques Wiener lost his eyesight due to the strain of making these incredibly detailed pieces. After losing his sight, he was forced to give up his art. However, his legacy lives on through the skills he taught to his brothers, Karl and Leopold Wiener.

And here is my bidder number (in blue) and Todd's "counterfeit" bidder number:

 

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That medal sure looks much better than the one below with the "49" face value. Seriously, an amazingly detailed medal - congratulations!

Christian

 

I wonder if Monsieur Wiener had anything to do with this medal?

 

I love it. The detail is absolutely stunning.

 

That's a terrific story. I would probably do something similar to your friend if my friend were bidding on something that I knew they'd pay up for. After all, it's for a good cause.

 

I would have bid against myself for that coin also ! Really is something to look at!

 

Wiener's medals are really cool. I don't own one, but would love to.

 

edited - forum rules

 

Wow that's a beauty! I like medals like this one as well, WTG!! Yeah I'm a sucker for holy medals especially when they're in that good of grade. Catholic upbringing and all. :thumb:

 

That uis really an amazing design. The illusion of depth is stunning.

 

why only 3/4 of the coin?

 

Wow. An extra Wow for the reverse.Thanks for the little bit on the history also. That gave the medal more meaning.

 

stunning i want it

 

is this belgian ?

 

Jacque Wiener was Belgian. He was also Jewish and did medals of Synagogues also. Most notably he made the medal for the Cologne Synagogue which was destroyed by the Nazis during Crystalnacht.

 

Jacob or Jacques Wiener was born in a village that is now part of Kamp-Lintfort (NW, DE). The village had a relatively large Jewish community (about one fourth) then. As far as I know, the synagogue medal he designed shows the "Synagoge in der Glockengasse". The main synagogue in Cologne (Rathenauplatz) was severely damaged in the Pogrom Night* and WW2 but could be reopened in the late 1950s.

* Side note: The cynical term (Reichs-)Kristallnacht was coined by the nazis. In German it is called Pogromnacht today, or November-Pogrome since it was not just one night.

Christian

 

I had one of the finest collections. See my Stacks Sales of 2008-2010 and Coin Galleries. I remeber it was an old German Collector in my coin club (Northern Valley Coin Club - New Jersey) he brought in a couple for show and tell). WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE! It was his ability to produce that three dimensional effect on the interor shots of the medal that have never been surpased or duplicated. Of course his great archetectural medals of Europe are the PRIME. As this piece ... $250-350. Its amazing ... someone will spend this amount on a PCGS common date Morgan Dollar in MS63 ... Numismatics and the way some people spend their money or their level of buying knowledge never ceases to amaze me ... LOL.

John Lorenzo
Numismatist
United States

 

I've been wanting one of his medals for a while now. The ones I've seen on eBay don't really thrill me. I'll be getting one soon.

 

I want 1 too.

 

Really beautiful medal . I really love his work .