GERMANY porcelain medal set about the Heidelberg Castle 1923

$55.00

GERMANY, HEIDELBERG, medal set, no date, Obverse: arms, 1544 FRÖLICH PFALZ . GOTT ERHALTS, Reverse: view of castle, SCHLOSS HEIDELBERG ALT HEIDELBERG DU FEINE DU STADT AN EHREN REICH AM NECKAR u. AM RHEINE NEINE ANDERE KOMMT DIR GLEICH, porcelain: brown, white, and black painted brown, brown and black are 42mm, white is 43mm, 3 pieces, handformed and the black one is hand painted, in cardboard case, Unc, Unc, few chips on the black one, XF, case worn, missing clasp,

1 in stock

SKU: 24910612 Categories: ,

Description

This lacks the Meissen Porzellanfabrik mark and probably was not made there.

The Germans have been fans of round, flat, shiny objects since the 2nd century BC, when they made imitations of Greek coins. Coin manufacture was deeply decentralized until the 19th century, extending to jetons and medals starting in the 16th century. Local tokens began to supplement the normally chaotic coinage situation in the markets from the late 17th century. Production of tokens and medals boomed in the 19th century, and was going strong into the 1990s.

There are two kinds of things that are called “medals.” One is things that look like coins but don’t express a value. Sometimes those medals are considerably larger than most coins. The other kind of medal is a metal thing designed to be displayed on one’s chest, often a reward for something, often in a military context. If the medal is small enough it is sometimes called a “medallet.”