One of the great tragedies of
numismatics is the loss of the unique Justinian "
SALVS ET GLORIA ROMANORVM"
medallion that was stolen from the
BnF in 1831 and assumed melted. Luckily a sulfur
cast of the coin
had been made prior to the theft, allowing
electrotype copies to be made. The top picture below is the
electrotype in the BM
collection.
The
medallion was huge.
Eckhel gave it's
weight as "five ounces and nearly three drachms", and
Mionnet gave it's
diameter as "38 lines" (
French measure). These translate to a
diameter of 85mm and
weight of 161g (36 solidi).
The photos below show a rather extraordinary silver
replica of this
medallion that just sold on
eBay. I was considering
buying it, but in the end didn't know what I'd do with it !
What's immediately apparent is that the
replica is 100% faithful to the
electrotype.
What's rather extraordinary is that this
replica has a
diameter of 116mm. It's 1 Kilo of silver (996g to be exact), estimated at 0.800-0.925 pure. It actually sold below melt value, even assuming the lower end purity of 0.800 !
I'd be curious if anyone knows anything about this piece and how it was made. Evidentially the 85mm
electrotype design was somehow faithfully copied to make this 116mm
replica! It could have been
cast or maybe machined. Given the accuracy of reproduction I assume the
electrotype (or maybe the sulfur
cast ?) was somehow computer scanned then enlarged.
The seller said he bought it over 15 years ago. You can see a serial number on the edge, plus a couple of other numbers.
Ben
P.S. All pictures are large - you can click to expand them.