Help with Medal

[DruMAX]

I know this isnt ancient but I have searched and search and have tried other forums and simply cannot find anything regarding this medal. I recieved much needed help here for another catholic medal and its latin inscription from Curtis Clay (thanks again) so I thought I would try this forum and it members as a last resort as I know some members do not just collect ancients but also later coins and medals.



I assume it is german, pre WWII, probably pre WWI, seems to be using an odd...old style? german...correct me if I am wrong but it translates:

forchte gott ehret den konig (Fear God Honor the King)

Thu(v)e (tu) Recht Schev Niemand (do right the law dread no one)





The city or town on the reverse is unknown to me...as are the crests...

Has anyone ever seen this medal before? know anything about it?

any help at all would be of great value to me...

thanks

[Jochen]

Hi DruMax!

The church in the centre of the city panorama looks like the Stephansdom in Vienna. It has the same tower! So I think your medal is a medaillon of Austria!

The motto 'Tue recht und scheu niemand! (Do right and fear nobody)' seems to originate from the book ''Teutscher Trost' from Ernst-Moritz Arndt AD 1813. Because there is an angel of peace with palm and branch flying above Vienna your coin may have connections to the peace after the Napoleonic wars?   

Best regards

[DruMAX]

yes, that does seem very similar. When I get home I am going to get a larger image of the back to see the town in more detail. I have a feeling if I could ID the main crest on the coin and the town I may at least pin down a time frame. This came from a lot of German coins and medals...mostly from in and around Baden but there were a few austrian coins as well mostly from late 1700's and 1800's. Thanks for the help, if indeed it is vienna then I have a little more to go on...

[Jochen]

The problem I see is that the legends sound more 'Prussian' than Austrian! 

[dpaul7]

Hi!

One tip -- check the front of the Krause-Mishler book - they show the various coats of arms in the "Instant Identifier" Page.

I see some similarities there -- Looks more German to me!

dpaul7

[DruMAX]

Okay, I have Krause world coins from 1801 to 1900 and looked at the quick reference like you say. Its still pretty hard to ID most of the crests as many of those crests have similar elements...but if I had to take a guess it does look like many of them could be german cities or states like Frankfurt, hamburg, baden etc...though there was nothing similar to the main center crest that I could find there...I will do more comparisons, maybe even look at some of the coin inside the book to see if I cant get a more definite match on some of the crest to crest on german or austrian coinage.

Here is a larger view of the town on the reverse...

[Jochen]

Hi DruMax!

Perhaps Matthaeus Merian can help you with his 'Topographiae Germaniae' from AD 1642-1655!

Best regards

[DruMAX]

Well, Someone was able to ID the city as being Strasbourg. Without doubt that is the city and knowing the city I was able to find a few (2) other examples of the medal here:

[DEAD LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN]

Now I dont know german so I had to use the old Babelfish to translate the text which translates as:

EUROPaeISCHE coins AND MEDALS FRANCE

Strasbourg, city No.: 2159

Schaetzwert/Estimate: CHF 2000. -

Silver medal o. J. (1655-1678). On the Reunionsstreit. Two lions hold the behelmte stadtwappen, around the coats of arms of the elsaessischen "Dekapolis": Cathedral, Kaysersberg, Tuerkheim, Colmar, Schlettstadt, Landau, white castle, Rosheim, Hagenau and Oberehnheim. Check valve city opinion of the north, under it cartouche with with difficulty solvable mono gram (Louis XIV?). 29.38 g. E.+ L. 559. Cat. S. 895. Rarely. Good excellently.

The other listing reads as follows:

EUROPEAN COINS AND MEDALS FRANKREICH/ELSASS STRASBOURG, CITY Silver medal o. J., unsigniert. Two lions hold the behelmte stadtwappen, around a circle from ten coats of arms of the imperial cities of the Hagenauer Landvogtei//Stadtansicht, over it after r. of flying angels with Palm and branch of oil, down German signs with mono gram from the letters a R and a G. 45.61 mm; 29.69 g. angel/teach 559. R very beautiful-excellently Estimate price: 400.00 EUR No.: 2159 Schaetzwert/Estimate: CHF 2000. -

There are still aspects of these listings I am still needing to figure out such as:

behelmte stadtwappen

elsaessischen

ten coats of arms of the imperial cities of the Hagenauer Landvogtei//Stadtansicht

Silver medal o. J.

On the Reunionsstreit

and one says the monogram is the letters R and G ,  the other says Louis IV?

The medal seems to have to do with a union of cities. I guess the date is largely unknown as I was also told it dated earlier than the quote above. Most times there is a reason for minting a medal like this. It seems to have been minted some time in the 1600's...there seems to be a cataloging of this medal but I dont have access and I am not sure how much more info that would offer. I know know much more than I did a day ago Anyone able to answer the above few questions? That would help complete the search. Thanks

[curtislclay]

behelmte stadtwappen: the city's coat of arms with a helmet

elsaessischen: of Alsace, a region along the Rhine, on the French-German border

cities of the Hagenauer Landvogtei: cities of the province governed from Hagenau

//Stadtansicht: Reverse: view of the city

Silver medal o. J.: undated

On the Reunionsstreit: Commemorating the Reunion Dispute (whatever that was.  Germany and France both claimed Alsace and Strasbourg.)

and one says the monogram is the letters R and G , the other says Louis XIV?  Yes, but Louis XIV is just a suggestion.  The monogram is "hard to decipher".

Two of the city names in the first description have wrongly been translated into English.

[LordBest]

Fantastic medal. I'm doing some research but all I can add right now is that the monogram does not belong to Louis XIV. I've seen similar city view medals referred to as double thalers so it may not be in my medal references, such as they are.

Edit: The medal is No. 559 in Numismatique de l'Alsace by A. Engel and E. Lehr, it may be able to tell you more about it.
                                                                         LordBest.