Why were “Art Medals” issued in the first place?

Rombalds

Why were “Art Medals” issued in the first place?

I have a small collection of athletic (cycling) Art Nouveau and Art Deco “Art Medals”. I have looked up the history of Art Medals but would be interested in your perspective on the subject. Clearly some medals are fashioned as bone fide art forms in their own right, especially those that are cast. However mine are ‘strikes” that might have been issued more than once. Why are they issued in the first place?

They are not currency or tokens. They were rarely (if ever) given as prizes in competitive athletic events. Some can be considered as “art”, others are actually rather mundane. Some might have been commissioned to celebrate an event or an occasion. Some were subsequently purchased (after being struck) for that purpose also. However, these were presumably not very cheap to produce. Who funded their creation and why? The artist? The Mint? Any other thoughts?
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harasha

I cannot say with any certainty, but I know that there have been fads for various types of collectibles. During the first quarter of the 20th century, postcards were very popular; the current market for cards is nothing at all like what swept the Western world at the time.
I suspect that medals satisfied a popular craving for something beautiful, but more durable.

newbiecollector

I like some. Here is one of my Ancient Greek art medals.

Dentuck

"A Marvelous Introduction to U.S. Tokens and Medals," by Q. David Bowers

SaorAlba

They were issued in late 19th century in the USA and France, so that collectors like myself could buy them now and have something pretty, and pretty old.

cacheman

If you don't have, at a minimum, even a mediocre library for reference then, if you're a serious collector, you'll need to start building one. A good foundation book for reference is Mark Jones' "Art of the Medal" which walks you through the history of the medal from the renaissance to the 1970's. Once you have this book you'll be able to use the bibliography to search for more books that are within your collecting strategy.

Here is a link with the info for the book and I'd suggest this to anyone who collects. Like coins, if you don't know what your looking at you can get lost very easily...and that can turn into a very expensive proposition, not to mention you'll end up with a hodge-podge collection that doesn't show or explain anything to anyone.

Art of the Medal