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Hi Clive, I noticed #6 was signed MARCHANT FEC. the above are extracts from Forrer, notice--Salus, carnelian; Is #2 also signed MARCHANT? Pat. http://www.scribd.com/Farlang/d/19727748-A-Catalogue-of-One-Hundred-Impressions-From-Gems-by-James-Edwards-James

TDP you are incorrigible but correct of course(should that be coarse!!!)

Nice site, just noticed a couple of typos Under Sovereign Dates & Types 'for example Edward VIII sovereigns as their are less' should be there Under Home 'Gold Sovereigns, struck by the Royal Mint have also been around for a long time and are globally excepted and recognised' should be accepted.

I wonder if Dupuis went up in the tethered ballon for the background image, or perhaps he worked from a photograph taken from it?

FERNANDUS ET ELISABE D.G. (Ferdinand and Isabella, by the grace of God) REX ET REGINA CAST. LEGIO. A.S.G. (king and queen of Castile, Leon, Aragon, Sicily Granada. I believe yours is a cast copy http://www.coinforum.com/can-anyone-identify-this-coin_topic2805.html

Image courtersy of the © Trustees of the British Museumhttp://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_image.aspx?objectId=3369034&partId=1&searchText=HARPOKRATES+lotus&fromADBC=ad&toADBC=ad&titleSubject=on&physicalAttribute=on&productionInfo=on&orig=%2fresearch%2fsearch_the_collection_database.aspx&images=on&numPages=10&currentPage=1&asset_id=1001510 This was acquired by the British Museum in 1814 and they date the drawing to 1765-1805.

Spoiler alert, Clive, do not click the link if you would like to find #4 yourself. http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/40B464A7-E39E-4C63-9B39-2759ABA17EFA

I would love to see larger images, as there is such fine detail in the reverse of the medal, it looks to me that the female figure is not pointing, she is in the act of crowning the artisan(as opposed to artist) with a laurel wreath. The reason I say artisan is the articles being held by him and the ones around him. I think he embodies both artists and skilled craftsmen. I even had to strain to make out the Eiffel Tower Photobucket is a good choice for free hosting of large images, which can be linked directly to a post. Small images are fine for small medals, even for large medals without much fine detail but this one, large with lots of low relief fine detail, calls out for a large image. Nice medal The male figure could also be described as Art & Industry. The female appears to be holding an olive branch in her other hand, so she could be Peace or Concordia.

James Tassie (1735-1799) was the most prolific collector and merchant of impressions of classical gems of the eighteenth century, providing sets and selections of impressions in a variety of materials. His collection is the most comprehensive of its day. Its 15,800 items were classified and described by Erich Raspe, and the catalogue printed in 1791 in English and French: A Descriptive Catalogue of a General Collection of Ancient and Modern Engraved Gems, Cameos and Intaglios, Taken from the Most Celebrated Cabinets in Europe; and Cast in Coloured Pastes, White Enamel, and Sulphur. They look pretty old to me Clive, though your guess is as good as mine Intaglios are concave seals, thus impressions taken from them are convex, ergo the ones you have must be impressions taken from the impressions of intaglios. Still could be early 1800's or by Tassie himself. With that in mind here is the right match, convex, with the head facing the otherway as it should. Bear that in mind when looking for the others and good hunting. http://www.beazley.o...38-ACE691766CA9 Reference Number: 3119 Description: A BUST OF A WARRIOR (ACHILLES?), A FILLET IN HIS HAIR, WITH A SHIELD DECORATED WITH SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC AND A SPEAR Signature: Frewin Collection Record: Fitzwilliam Manuscript Catalogue: X7 Unpublished Tassie: TRAY 49.1 Material: Cornelian Comments: ATTRIBUTED IN MANUSCRIPT If you find any that are not listed this is the person to contact http://www.beazley.o...ople/wagner.htm she is a sweet lady, I had occassion to contact her once before because I noticed they had the same Tassie listed with 2 different numbers, she not only replied but took the time to look through my medals on Omnicoin & complimented me on my collection.

Great acquisitions Clive, here is the link you need to identify them, I locate the first one you will enjoy the search for the rest. They are Tassie impressions, or similar, of intaglio seals. http://www.beazley.o...rnPage=&start=0 40009130, Edinburgh Tassie, 3122, A BUST OF A WARRIOR (ACHILLES?), A FILLET IN HIS HAIR, WITH A SHIELD DECORATED WITH SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC AND A SPEAR, Frewin, Fitzwilliam Manuscript Catalogue, X7 EDIT Looking closer at them, they are not identical, there are some slight differences between them.

The Exposition Universelle Paris 1878 medal, in the first post in this topic, is mine unfortunately the one I found the picture of doing a google picture search is not mine. The link from google pics went to an old french ebay auction(since deleted) but the picture remains on google pics. I only posted it as I recognised it matched the description of the Paris Mint's comission, and then by googling again using the objects depicted and Ceres i was able to find the writen description in the US documents which meant it was struck at a minimum pre-1849. It was contained in a gift of 478 medals from France to the USA, see below. Strangely the list of medals runs to 1008, the Ceres is #960. This other extract explains the diference, the 487 were a further gift bring the total up to 1008 in the list, though it states 1022 in the preamble. One last extract which relates to electrotyping.

I found this obverse picture on-line with no info or the reverse. Signed by Oudine and it matches the description above, I then found; From Index to Miscellaneous Documents of the Senate of the United States, 1849-1850, published in 1850; Under the heading Medals for Prizes. "960 Ceres, with ripe corn in one hand and a sickle in the other; in the field, a plough and a cornucopia, (E. Oudine fecit.) Reverse, a wreath of corn and grapes, in which are the heads of a cow and a horse, with a plough, and blank to inscribe the name of the meritorious - - - - 50" So this is most likely Oudine's design from his commission in 1840, for which he was awarded 2,500 francs. Obviously Ceres' iconic head was not inspired by this previous medal of his. EDIT. Forrer lists a Prize Medal by Oudine with the head of Ceres (ordered by the " Comite des Monnaies) he places it between 1845-1847 listed medals (which being a prize medal is not dated) which if correct, would make it the inspiration for the later coins.

Welcome, looks a very nice coin from the reverse, it would be great if we could see the obverse though

Electrotype copy of the De Witt Brothers Assassination medal. IILVSTRISSIMI. FRATRES. IOHAN: ET. CORNEL: DE. WITT 48mm coppered 22gram. The original medal was struck in two sizes 48mm silver and 51mm WM. The design has some subtle differences between the two sizes. They both had edge inscriptions, the silver was in latin, WM in dutch. "Historic 1672 De Witt Brothers Assassination Medal 1672 De Witt Brothers Assassination Dutch Medal Commemorating the murders of Johan and Cornelius De Witt in 1672, this Dutch medal features the conjoined busts of the brothers facing right and the Latin legend ILLVSTRISSIMI FRATRES JOHAN ET CORNEL DE WIT (the distinguished brothers Johan and Cornelius De Witt). An eight-line Dutch inscription within an ornate border fills the reverse. .Johan, a leading statesman in Holland, was unpopular with the general populace due to his pro-French sentiments. He was lured into visiting his brother in prison, but it was an elaborate trap plotted by his political enemies. Once he arrived at the jail, an angry mob murdered him and his brother--their bodies torn to pieces and put on public display" Though the quotation above states Johan was killed because of his pro-French stance that was not really the case. De Witt had opposed making the young William of Orange(later to be William III of England) Statholder for life because he wanted to protect the Repulic from monarchy. The French(Louis XIV) had rapidly conquered all but 2 of the 7 Provinces and De Witt wanted to either negotiated for better terms, before the remaining provinces were defeated, or at least buy some time with the negotiations to prepare some defences. Both the brothers were in fact true Dutch republican patriots, who, though they opposed the House of Orange's ambition to be rulers of the Netherlands, were in no way pro-French.

When you say it is gold, do you mean gold in colour? Because I believe your example is brass. The Irish called "gunmoney" "brassmoney". The later gold, silver and copper crowns were struck by Bolton from the original dies in the early 1800's as commemorative boxed pieces, these are usually in perfect condition. The whole idea of gunmoney was that it was intended as temporary coinage, until James regained his kingdom and then you would exchange your base metal temporary coinage for genuine silver coins. Guns, bells etc were melted down to produce gun money, this is not my area of collecting but I have never heard of an original 1690 gunmoney crown made of gold, but I could be wrong. EDIT http://www.londoncoi...s/IrelandO.html The reverse on this has crud above ANO similar to yours, both might have been struck from the same die.

To appreciate the reverse on that jeton requires a larger image, or to put it another way, that reverse deserves a larger image

History was writen it the past, in the now and will be writen in the future, my point is not how the "facts" , surmises, theories are interpreted, distorted etc but the fabrication of history. That is, if someone commits a fraud ie Piltdown Man and thereby alters what facts we know, or might be come aware of, or writing fiction and passing it off as fact is always wrong, even when the book becomes a best seller and is made into a movie. Twisting facts and data is one thing, inventing the facts and data is of a diferent magnitude. Anyone is entitled to argue about history, even if the argument is totally inane, no one should invent history by using fraud.

The 1894 Department de la Seine et Oise is, I assume, an agricultural/horticultural prize medal seeing the grapes and fruit by the rifle and the hand sickle by the hollow log. Wihout these other objects, the soldiers helmet, gun and trumpet would give the impression of a shooting prize medal. Or is it a shooting medal for farmers?

Quote from my earlier post "unfortunately some people take advantage of new pieces & try to pass them off as genuine" that is the criminal act, not the making of the copy & it being sold as a copy. I also stated that copies can "muddy the waters" Hence my point about Helmut Zobl's aluminum ancient greek copies, they cannot be genuine. The intent was only in regard to the person or persons making the said object. If they intended to copy a piece or invent a piece to sell as genuine that is a crime, if they copy a piece or invent a piece and sell it as such, there is no crime, unless legislation forbids the act. The Hobby Protection Act was only enacted to prevent future deception by having copy or date added to the original article. History is the accumulated knowledge gleaned from many ancient sources supported by the research of many dedicated individuals in mutiple disciplines throughout the centuries and though there are various interpretations & disagreements about much of it, I hope you are not implying that to add some complete fiction to it and disguise it as fact is acceptable in anyway?

The series of renaissance medals, copies of roman republic/empire coins/medallions originals and some complete fantasy ones, by Giovanni da Cavino of Padua( created in cooperation with the humanist and coin collector Alessandro Bassiano) were produced not to deceive but to supply people with material for their collections following the growth of interest in Ancient Rome. They were known as copies & fantasy pieces at the time they were struck, and Paduan medals are still highly collectible to this today. I would love to have some in my collection, just be aware that many that you see today are cast copies of his struck medals http://www.coinsweek...8?&id=57&type=a Quote from the link above(well worth reading it also contains a link to THE 'PADUAN.' BY RICHARD HOE LAWRENCE); " we know that from time to time Cavino combined the reverses of his imitations not only with the portraits of Roman emperors but with the recently made portraits of influential politicians and merchants of his native city as well. That would have been silly if his imitations really had tried to deceive collectors" I think that the crucial point is whether something is made to deceive or not. Buying a modern copy or fantasy piece and being made aware of that fact is okay. Writing historical fiction is fine, writing history is okay too, but writing historical fiction and publishing it as fact is not.

Honouring the past in that way is fine, if there is no attempt to deceive, unfortunately some people take advantage of new pieces & try to pass them off as genuine. I like many of them myself.... but they can "muddy the water". I love these by Helmut Zobl of Vienna but they are struck in aluminium/aluminum.

I found your blog on this subject fascinating. Crime is crime but when the crime involves faking, or making historical artifacts & thereby distort our accumulated collective knowledge of our history it crosses the line into a crime against humanity itself. Faking a rare coin is bad enough but making a total fabrication is beyond the pale & when it is committed by persons who supposedly love their area of expertise & they use this knowledge to dupe fellow collectors it is henious.

. Found this etching online at http://www.tate.org....rquis-of-t11362 note; Nature has 6 breasts, the spelling "Genious" which was quite commonly used in the 18th century and "SENTIMENTAL MAG." on the spine of the book.

Interesting medal, great to have the ribbon too.

Thought I should put this copy of the Granby Sentimental Token here, not by John Kirk but by G. B. http://www.coinpeople.com/index.php?/topic/28960-marquis-of-granby-1774-a-mystery-piece/page__hl__granby__fromsearch__1