The Waterloo medal, here at last.

[Terrezar]

200 years ago the French dictator Napoleon Bonaparte fought and lost the battle of Waterloo, and the powers of Europe responsible for his defeat comissoned a medal for their victory.

The medal had to be like nothing seen before, becouse this was said to have been the most important battle yet in history. Therefore, the job of making the medal was given to the italian engraver Benedetto Pistrucci, who was a highly regarded coinmaker of the time.

Afther more than thirty years the design was finished, and a medal more complicated than anything the world had ever seen before were ready to be struck. However, it soon turned out that the tecnology for doing so did not exsist, at the time. And so the work was put on hold.

Now, together with the 200 years jubilee a desition was made to revisit the prodject, and the norwegian firm Samlerhuset (translates to "The Collecors' house") were invited to join the workforce.

The final product were made and struck by "Det norske myntverk," witch is owned by "Samlerhuset" and houses, among others, a group of skilled engravers. Here is a short video about the prosess. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wh3vCGmTjk&feature=youtu.be

 

[mdengraver]

That was neat. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Marrinan]

Thank You for the interesting story of a Peace Medal. Fred

 

[Jesse.beckham]

Very cool!

 

[GTJC460]

Wow! Lots of silver in those coins

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Thank you for that.

The French Revolution and subsequent Napoleonic wars are an interesting and bloody time in our history and is well worth studying. It culminated in the battle of Waterloo situated in Belgium when Napoleon was finally defeated by his nemeses The Duke Of Wellington and the Prussians. It was the only battle that Napoleon and Wellesley faced each other. Reading about the Battle Of Waterloo you can only wonder at the sheer bravery of the soldiers and the horror they faced.

Quite right that it should be remembered with a medal and the memory kept alive.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Ed Westerly]

WOW! That is quite the impressive story. Thanks for sharing it with the forum. How does one go about getting one?

 

[monk]

quite a tribute to the engraver that did the original. interesting to see this . tyvm

 

[Roger Bleile]

I recognize Wellington and Blücher as two of the central figures on the medal but does anyone know who the other two are? One may be the Prince of Orange but I'm not sure.

I can't see any reason that this die could not have been engraved in 1815 by the medalists of the day however I am guessing that there was no press powerful enough to coin it.

Did you notice that the engraver was hammering an onglette directly on the shank with no handle. I've only seen engravers cutting Asian style do that but this fellow was cutting side hand style.

 

[gtsport]

I didn't see any chips when he was hammering, I think it may have been for show. If I remember right, the combination of the medal's size and the quality of the steel were the reasons that it wasn't struck from Pistrucci's original dies.

 

[diandwill]

Amazing vid. Thanks. I noticed that the engravers were moving their hands, with the work being held stationary. Is that typical of die cutting?

 

[gtsport]

That is how I do it, but I have no idea if I am doing it right.

 

[Terrezar]

As far as I know, stamp engravers also move the graver and hold the work piece in plase. At least that goes for those I have seen.

 

[LVVP]

It is a good video, thanks