Hello everyone, there are a lot of top 10 lists showing up these days and I aready did one of my ancient additions. So why medals? Mostly because I didnt add to many interesting modern coins this year but many medals I consider nice and interesting for historic and artistic reasons. So here my list: 1. 1703 medal from saxony. This medal celebrates the arrival of Arch Duke Charles on the Dresden Autumn Exhibition. At this point Charles was fighting in the war of spanish succesion for his right on the throne of spain so he is shown on this medal as Charles III. King of Spain a title he would keep for the rest of his life but wouldnt practise after loosing the war and his throne to Felipe V. of the house Bourbon. Charles would become Holy Roman Emperor later as Emperor Charles VI. . The obverse of this medal features the young throne pretender in fine clothes while the reverse shows him riding clothed as a roman general which made the medal even more interesting to me as an ancient coin collector. 1703 - Arrival of King Charles (III. of Spain) on the Dresden Autumn Exhibition 2. 1783 portuguese medal. This medal celebrates the receiving of royal patronage of the university of lisbon by Queen Maria I. of Portugal which now had the name Royal Academy of Sciences. The obverse shows the Queen giving a wreath to the personified portugal. To the feet of portugal are some items of academial equipment and next to the queens throne is a cornucopia. 1783 - Queen Maria I. of Portugal bestows royal patronage on the university of Lisbon 3. 1840 danish medal. This medal comemorates the anointing of the new danish king Christian VIII. and his wife Queen Caroline Amalie. The obverse features the royal couple and the reverse a nice depiction of the royal regalia. 1840 - Anointing of King Christian VIII. and Queen Caroline Amalie of Danmark 4. 1851 british medal. This medal comemorates the first international exhibition of 1851. This project was envisioned by Prince Albert the husband of Queen Victoria who is shown on the obverse of the medal. The reverse features the famous Crystal Palace exhibition hall and a lot of data about it. These early international exhibtions where amazing events where many new inventions where exhibited and there was put a lot of ressources into them by the hosting nations for international prestige. I do have a french medal of the 1855 exhibition hall in paris but it didnt made it into this top 10. 1851 - Great international exhibition of 1851 - Crystal Palace 5. 1855 medal from france. This is a bronze price medal from 4th international exhibition that was hosted by Napoleon III.s new second french empire. The obverse features the bust of the Emperor and the reverse the logo of the exhibition with the french imperial coat of arms in the centre with 20 heraldic shields of participating nations around it. The overall quality of the medal is just awesome and all 20 nations can be identified with some knowledge of historic coats of arms. The winner of this medal seems to be the agricultural society of Styrie. 1855 - International exhibition price medal 6. 1859 medal from spain. This medal comemorates the start of the hispano-moroccan war of 1859. The obverse features Queen Isabel II. of spain and the obverse the dates and what seems to be a war speech of the queen. 1859 - Hispano-Moroccan War 7. 1901 medal from the netherlands. This is the largest medal on this list and celebrates the marriage of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and Prince Hendrik of Mecklenburg. The obverse features the (happy?) wedding couple and the obverse all the dates about the event with some nice rose branches around and the crowned coats of arms of the couple in the top. 1901 - Marriage of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands 8. 1902 medal from the grand duchy of baden. This medal comemorates the 50th reign anniversary of Grand Duke Friedrich I. of Baden. The obverse features the bust of the Grand Duke with flowers in the background and his reign dates right of him. The reverse shows the griffon of Baden holding the heraldic shield of the duchy with the medals main legend under it. While I have some more reign anniversary medals this is a more beautiful design than most of the more plain ones issued at that time. 1902 - 50th reign anniversary of Grand Duke Friedrich I. of Baden 9. 1909 german medal. This medal comemorates the Imperial Manouvers of 1909 and there is only one reason why it is on this list. The bust of Emperor Wilhelm II. is just awesome and I loved it once I saw it for sale. There are a lot magnificent medals from Wilhelms reign but few of the more low budget once got such a nice bust. The reverse features the castle Mergentheim that was the imperial headquarter during this manouver. 1909 - Imperial Maneuver 10. 1972 british medal. This silver medal comemorates the silver wedding of Queen Elizabeth II. and Prince Philip. The medal looks just gorgeous and I received it with the original holder. While looking for some dates about it on the internet I saw that it seems to be a medal minted by the london medalist John Pinches. If his medals are really are as exclusive and famous as some pages claim I cant tell. Maybe a collector of british medals can tell me. The obverse features the royal couple and the reverse their royal coats of arms. 1972 - Queen Elizabeth II. Silver wedding
Those are some great looking medals! My favorite is #7. The profile of Queen Wilhelmina is beautiful.
