schutzenfester

Yes, I remember them being posted. Nice medals Ian. I'm sure they are welcomed additions to your collection.

For something a little older than most I share, here is an example of a 1651 Netherlands, Leyden, Shooters Pfennig. It is actually marked as "Schutters Penning"

Happy New Year everyone! The last I saw on 12/31/08 this thread had 24,998 views. That means between then and now (at this writing 25,007), we had our 25,000th view of this shooting medal thread! How appropriate it came at the New Year. At this time, we also have 188 replies/posts, that in itself says a lot. I hope we continue to build upon that so this great hobby will continue to be enjoyed and adopted by others. I am very happy that so many people enjoy this thread. I'm sure it is due to the fine content and photographs contributed by so many and, of course, because of Ian who started it in October 2005! The fact that the thread is still going strong testifies to the popularity of the Swiss Shooting Medal hobby. Medals from other coutries are also always welcome. Let's keep it growing with posts and views. Anyone with a shooting medal; please post pictures so others here at CoinPeople can enjoy it/them too! I hope all have a wonderful and eventful New Year.

Here is a pic of Richter 1724 (Martin 1015) It is from the 1859 Cantonal shoot in Zurich It is extremley rare. Silver and 41mm

Here is a pic of Richter 1273 (Martin 683) It is from the 1900 Cantonal shoot in Amrisweil, Canton Thurgau There were 400 example minted in silver and it is 45mm.

Great contest...Great prize!

This is certainly a head scratcher. Whatever the grade, this medal is certainly mint state!

Another from the museum. This time an actual photograph from the 1895 Federal Schützenfest at Winterthur.

Below is a picture (depiction) of the 1910 Schützenfest at Bern. I thought it might be interesting in regards to the current contest... The picture is in the Schützenfest Museum in Bern.

Thanks for the contest hiho...this will be interesting.

Here are a couple of examples of paper jetons hiho mentioned above:

Hi Kim, Yes, paper jetons are quite rare indeed. It least many of them are. Jetons started out as metallic and then because of the cost associated they turned to paper (1880's), then evolved to stamps and then back to metallic issues. The paper and stamp jetons did not last many years because of the fragility of the material. At schützenfests, jetons were used like money. A participant would purchase a quantity of jetons and then use them to purchase ammunition, meals etc. within the schützenfest grounds. He would also have to present jetons to enter the shooting stand of the shoot he had entered. So, as you can imagine, paper jetons are quite rare because they were not issued for many years and because of the fact they are made of paper and thus have not survived in great numbers through the years. In Richter's jeton book, many jetons do not have an associated cost due to their rarity. On another note, I hope to have a Holy Freres medal up for auction in the near future. Rod

Thank you very much for your kind words Kim. Mine is a labor of love and I am happy that others, yourself included, appreciate the true artistic qualities of schützenfest medals. I enjoy posting the pictures as well as learning more about improving techiniques of presentation.

Using my new coin photo template, here is a schützen medal from the Seventh Schützenfest held in Münich, Germany in 1881

I wish I could say I worked for hours in a program until I was satisfied with this outcome...but alas I cannot. It did take me a couple of hours until I got to this point and after I did it the first time I was able to duplicate a second version in about 20 minutes. I was lucky enough to find a template for the picture. The template has the shadows and to a certain extent the reflection too. You do have to crop your pictures and size them, you have to flip your images and place them beneath the main image and then when you merge them into the "reflection" layer, you get the mirrored image. I then place my title and the rest is history. I do think the overall image is fantastic. I got the idea from halfdollar here at this site and then upon further investigation I was able to find the original template by becokacoins, who like halfdollar is very gracious by offering their template for others use. Thank you for the complement and I too think it is a very cool and professional looking presentation that I think I will be keeping for future use!

I recently aquired new software and was able to put the previous Murten medal in a new and nice (imho) presentation...Somewhat the same as above but I was able to expand upon that original.

Here is a picture of an extremely rare medal from Murten. Canton: Fribourg Locale: Murten Type of Shoot: Schutzen Gesellschaft Von Murten Year: 1843 (without loop) Metal: Silver Size: 39mm Richter #401, Martin #215

Very nice site and useful too. I would like to add a link to my site.

Here is R87/M53; Basel 1844, 38mm, engraved by Antoine Bovy of Genf. Although this medal is relatively common in silver and bronze, here is an example of it gold plated. In Richter, it is identified as bronze, gold plated but my example is stamped Cuivre (copper) on the rim edge, as most likely all the gold plated examples are. In all our years of collecting, my Dad (47 yrs.) and I (28 years) had never seen a gold plated example of this medal until I was able to purchase it a few years ago and am very happy to own it.

Here is an example of a German shooting award. It is from a shoot in Rothenburg, July 3, 1907 and was awarded to the Schutzen Konig. The award is in perfect condition with toning and no detractions. I have never seen another like it and thought everyone might enjoy seeing it-

hiho, Here is R228 without the 'Diamond A' like your medal. 1911 Olten, Solothurn Silver, 23mm Holy Freres, St. Imier

Here are two eamples of a beautiful shooting medal albeit common. The first in bronze and then the same medal in silver. It is Richter 228/Martin141 1894 Thun, Bern 45mm Bronze, 1,452 examples Silver, 724 examples Engraver: Franz Homberg, Bern

Hiho, You are for the most correct IMHO. By looking at medals with a woman represented you will notice that the woman depicted on Swiss schützenfest medals look different from medal to medal most of the time. Helvetia is likely the main character but as you stated other women (A Swiss woman) is the primary candidate. The French Marianne, U.S. Lady Liberty and U.K. Britannia almost always look the same on the various medals. thedeadpoint, Many times the scene depicted is the locality where the shoot was held or a local landmark. Schützenfests were held as Federal, Cantonal, Regional and City events. The Federal (Country wide) was yearly and attracted thousands of people. Cantonal (state) were as widely attended by the public. Shoots in general were the high point on the calendar for the populous at the time. Hundreds of thousands of Swiss francs commonly comprised the value of the shoot's awards. The participants were awarded a wide range of items for awards for placing in different levels of the various shoots as well as for participating. Somewhat common awards were medals; however the mintage of medals compared to coins makes them rare. The most common form of award is the shooting decoration; these are seen on eBay commonly and can be most easily described as looking like a formal military award that is pinned on a person's chest. Before a shoot, committee members would solicit local shop keepers for prizes (usually custom made) to be awarded at the shoot. These awards can range from silver services, clocks, watches, guns, currency in displays, statues, cups and the list goes on. As stated above most of these types of awards made by local vendors were custom made and had some type of attribution to the specific shoot.

I'm very happy to hear you are enjoying your new acquisitions hiho. My Dad and I love the hobby and also enjoy passing along any information we can regarding schützenfest items. I am very happy to have you participating in our every other Friday auctions, I hope you have found them beneficial and enjoyable! schutzenfester

hiho, As an FYI, The medals with the incused 'A' are more common than the ones without. The mintage figures that Richter states are only for those without the 'A' As good as a reference Richter's book is, there are many errors throughout. Which based on the sheer volume of the book is probably not that bad. We are not positive but the medals with the 'a' are probably restrikes after 1911 (this is not a known fact) The medals that are with the 'a' are more common and would/should be considered common based on Richter's classifications. In the forty plus years my Dad has collected and the 20 years I've been collecting, the ones with the 'a' are quite common place. On another note: Congratulations on winning the medal. We hope you like it, please let me know after you recieve it... Rod