Coronation Exhibition Author:British Museum Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ENGLISH ACCESSION AND CORONATION MEDALS. The first coronation medal in the English series is that of Edward vi. That there are none of an earlier date is not... more » surprising, as we have but few English medals before about the middle of the reign of Henry vni., and these are chiefly portrait-medals only. The coronation medal of Edward vi., besides being the first of the series, is perhaps one of the most remarkable. It is of large size, and has on the obverse a portrait of the King, with a long inscription in Latin setting forth his claim to the supremacy of the Church in England and Ireland. The reverse type consists of a repetition of this inscription in Hebrew and Greek. The design was not original, but was taken from a medal of Henry vin. commemorating the Reformation. The example set by Edward vi. was not followed either by Mary or Elizabeth, of whom we have no coronation medals. Of the latter, however, there are some medalets commemorating her accession, on which she is symbolised by the phcenix rising from the flames, an allusion to the treatment she had received from her sister and Philip of Spain. James i. and Charles i. both struck medals, or rather medalets, on their coronation, the former also on his accession; but of Charles i. the most remarkable pieces are those relating to his coronation at Edinburgh, and to his returni to London after that event. They are both by the artist Nicholas Briot, and are good examples of his skill as a medallist, especially the Return to London medal, on which there is an interesting view of the Thames and the City of London. Many medals, mostly Dutch, commemorate the restoration of Charles n.; the best being by Jan Roettier, who is said to have come from Holland in the retinue of the King. The coronation medal was, however, executed...« less