COINS AND MEDALS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 33, 8 February 1935, Page 7

COINS AND MEDALS

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT

The, origin, of medals and the growth of the medallist's art were traced by Professor Rankine Brown at a meeting held, by the New Zealand Numismatic Society to farewell his Excellency the Governor-General (Lord Bledisloe) last evening. The professor said that medals were of much more modern origin, than coins, their earliest forms, which were not true medals, being coins struck to commemorate 'special occasions. >

In discussing the similarity and differences between, coins and medals he said that both were made from metal, arid were, circular in shape, but.they were made for different purposes. Both were collected as curiosities. The term medal was frequently used for coins, although medals, as known to modern times, had nothing to do with coins and were of much more modern origin. At one time certain coinswere struck in'commemoration of notable events, as medals were struck later, but these coins were circulated and •were not medals.

The first actual. medals were not commemorative at all' but were, in fact, portraits made in a lasting material. Such! portrait-medals might have been commissioned by the persons represented or they might have been made by the medallist in the employment of his taste in artistry. ■- Coins tended to become conventional and stereotyped as a country. .could not always be changing its.coins, but the art of the medallist was not bounded in the same way. The medals of the early medallists were artistic productions from start to finish, and were distinguished by their splendid portraiture and representation of real things. .

The production of medals spread from Italy to other countries where national; characteristics were de-' veloped in the medals produced. Many I of the later medals were of value because of their historic interest rather than because of their artistic merit. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth the defeat of the Armada was commemorated by the striking of a medal, and from then on many historic' events were recorded. Dies were used for striking medals during the reign of James I, the production of the dies having a mechanically produced appearance when compared with the earlier cast medals. The medallist's art fell away in the eighteenth century and first half of the nineteenth century, but a return to the true medallist's art was made in the latter half of the nineteenth century: when- there was a revival in France, England, and Germany; The use of machinery had; led to the Mo . auction of, medals in large quantities. HEALTHY. SPARKLING~TEETH. For sparkling teeth, healthy gums, and a fresh, clean mouth use Q-Tol Tooth Paste and Gum Tonic. It contains the tissue-stimulating qualities and antiseptic properties of Q-T6l Skin I Emollient. Try this New Zealand tnroduct today! Large economy tube, |Is 3d from all. chemists and stores.— jAdvt,