World Map Medal

Very interesting medal.

wow! Where do you find those?

As to "the purpose of such a coin", it was presumably intended as a world map that one could conveniently carry and refer to, without having to unfold a big, cumbersome paper map. People back then used to use medals for all sorts of things for which we now use paper or plastic. Calendars, for example. A map-medal such as this would obviously be of little practical use in navigation, so it is more a reference piece for the curious.

As to the suggested date of 1820, I think that is a bit too late in the piece. Some of the information on it would have been obsolete by 1820; "Australia" replaced "New Holland" as the English name for that island after the publishing of Flinders' book in 1814, and it was certainly known in Britain that Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) was a separate island to Australia by 1804. The Land of Jesso (a mythical island north of Japan) is also shown on the map, indicating an early date. The complete lack of Antarctica, on the other hand, points to a date after the publication of Flinders' book (as maps older than this tended to illustrate a mythical "Great Southern Land").

The 74mm version (Eimer 1139a) in bronze.

Photos of my Coin hopefully can be seen here:

http://s725.photobucket.com/user/ma...20and%20Case

http://www.harveyandgore.co.uk/about.php

They were at Regent Street from 1869 but are now elsewhere in London. I'd emailed them previously but they could add to my research...