Medal Winners
Unlike many competitions where a medal is given as a prize, at this year’s 2026 MEDALS250 contest held by the American Medallic Sculpture Association, medallions were the focus of the…
Unlike many competitions where a medal is given as a prize, at this year’s 2026 MEDALS250 contest held by the American Medallic Sculpture Association, medallions were the focus of the competition. Given a monetary prize, the winning design of this Semiquincentennial-themed competition was awarded to sculptor Jeffrey Briggs’ medal, featuring an image of a young Benjamin Franklin on the obverse, with the Founding Father’s famous 1754 political cartoon, Join, or Die, of a broken snake laid by state initials, on the reverse.
Courtesy of Wannenes.
As organizations like the American Medallic Sculpture Association are keeping the artistic tradition of medal design alive today, auction houses are finding the historic charm of medals quite profitable. A highlight at the Coins and Medals auction on April 9 at Wannenes, which featured ancient, world, and Italian currency and medals, was an extremely rare medal from the first modern Olympic Games (lot 143). Made by renowned medalist Jules-Clément Chaplain for the Monnaie de Paris, the silver (66.63 g, 50 mm) medal comes with its original box and is one of a few surviving examples from an estimated 100 specimens produced, of which those that exist today are mostly held in museums or private collections. It also garnered the catalog’s cover, showing a head of Zeus with a globe in his hand on which a winged Victoria stands and carries an olive branch. The reverse shows the Acropolis of Athens with the Parthenon and an inscription in Greek reading, “DIETHENIS OLYMPIAKOI AGONES EN ATHINAIS 1896” (International Olympic Games of Athens 1896). The Mint’s sign, a horn of abundance, and the French word “argent,” sit on the medal’s edge.
Courtesy of Stanley Gibbons Baldwin’s.
Another significant medal winner was awarded at the March 30 Ancient, British & World Coins auction at Stanley Gibbons Baldwin’s. A standout at the auction, which realized £580,000 for English Civil War, Napoleonic, and Tudor-era currency, was a gold Earl St. Vincent presentation medal (lot 369), which sold for £9,225. Issued for Earl St. Vincent (Sir John Jervis) upon the win of a British fleet under his control against the Spanish, the piece displays his bust on the obverse with a naval officer and seaman shaking hands in front of a union flag on the reverse.
For more information about the 2026 MEDALS250 contest, visit amsamedals.org; the Wannenes auction, go to wannenesgroup.com; and the Stanley Gibbons Baldwins’ event at sgbaldwins.com.
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