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Union Augusta

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Honors flysis Income beezis Onches nobis Inob keesis

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  • SwampboySwampboy Posts: 12,876 ✭✭✭✭✭
    That is a handsome portrait of Carlos and his wife.

    What can you tell us about this medal harasha

  • harashaharasha Posts: 3,079 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Well, it is a marriage medal. I think the big deal about it, and I think it comes in different varieties, is that it was struck by a "modern" press. I am not sure. I read about it somewhere, but I do not remember.
    Honors flysis Income beezis Onches nobis Inob keesis

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  • PatARPatAR Posts: 347 ✭✭✭
    Fantastic! You've outdone yourself Harasha! Such a find!



    I have not seen this medal before, but based on my prior research related to coins of Isabel II, I suspect it may be one of several demonstration pieces minted in Paris by Mariano Gonzalez de Sepúlveda and given to his father and Manuel de Godoy when he returned from Paris and proposed implementation of the new minting techniques.



    I'm not positive of the translation of the last part of the inscription, but the reverse translates roughly:



    JP Droz inventor of the method of multiplying dies



    identifying the means of avoiding fraud, delay, and expense



    This refers to Jean Pierre Droz who introduced a number of advancements in minting technologies in the late 1700's. Among them, the portrait lathe and hubbing process that allowed multiple dies to be made from a single master hub. He also designed a collar for producing edge markings to be struck simultaneously with the obverse and reverse dies.



    Droz and Philippe Gengembre also worked together on refinement of a mechanism that fed planchets into a coining press and automatically ejected the struck coins. They implemented these improvements at the Paris mint in the 1790's.



    Mariano Gonzalez de Sepúlveda's father, Pedro, sent him to Paris in the late 1700's to study minting techniques with the specific goal of modernizing Spain's minting methods to better combat counterfeiting.



    Minting coins using the new hubbing system and using an edge die would dramatically improve the consistency and security of the coins produced. The recent advancements in automation were equally amazing.



    I could go on for pages, but suffice to say that when Mariano returned home he began setting up new equipment only to be interrupted by the French occupation of Spain.



    He actually had to regain favor in Spain after he and his father were accused of conspiring with the French (they were simply doing their job under whatever government was in place). He eventually did so and his knowledge of modern minting techniques made him uniquely qualified to implement new machinery at Madrid (beginning in 1824) which was subsequently used to mint coins of Isabel II once she was named Queen of Spain in 1833.



    Very cool medal! Thanks for sharing it!
  • pruebaspruebas Posts: 4,302 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Thanks, PatAR.
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