Crystal Palace Medallion - United Thus, What Foe Have We To Fear - ID Please

Very interesting!

Very interesting. Thank you for that Spence.

It's fascinating having a medallion turn up that has only one mention on the internet. I have only been collecting coins and medallions for a few years, and have found online resources to be excellent and very comprehensive in everything I have searched for. It's a first for me to draw a complete blank.

Reading William Joseph Taylor's Wikipedia page, the guy was a very active token and medallion maker. Perhaps it's no wonder not all of his works are catalogued.

Pity someone drilled a hole in this medallion, but that's pretty common for the era. Otherwise it's in excellent condition.

Yes, it's a "souvenir medal" made for sale at one of the exhibitions held in the Crystal Palace, London. New York had a Crystal Palace of its own, 1854-1858, but Taylor is a British medal-maker so the original London edifice is the most probable.

Dating is more problematic since, obviously, the medal doesn't have a date on it. My question would be, "what's the medal made of"? Is it aluminium, or something heavier?

These kinds of cheap souvenir medals were made of aluminium once that metal became widely available, in around the 1880s. Earlier medals were usually made of "white metal", a kind of pewter that looks nice and silvery when fresh and new but can turn quite dark and ugly if it gets "circulated". If it's aluminium, then it can't be from the 1851 exhibition. If it's actually silver, then 1851 remains a possibility, though a medal struck at or for the Exhibition would probably mention the Exhibition, rather than the Crystal Palace.

The Crystal Palace was moved after the Exhibition in 1854 and burned down in 1936, which gives an ultimate end-date, though W.J. Taylor's company had ceased production of medals and tokens long before this, ceasing before his death in 1885. In that period, the Crystal Palace served as a unique mixture of museum, cultural centre, and marketplace.

Ordinarily, I would assume this to be some kind of generic souvenir medal, made for sale in the Crystal Palace some time between 1854 and the mid-1880s. However, I a suspicious; Taylor had a medal press inside the Palace at the 1851 exhibition, but I can't find any records of this being on-site after the 1854 reopening. It's possible this medal is lying to us about being "made in the Crystal Palace", and Taylor has simply used his reputation as "the medallist for the 1851 Exhibition" for a little poetic license - "Truth in advertising" having not yet been established in Law in the mid-1800s. I would also think that if it were a common souvenir medal, there'd be more examples of them floating about the Internet.

We can probably exclude 1851 as a manufacture date, or design date, simply because of the on-medal reference to "the Crystal Palace". In 1851, it wasn't officially called that, it was just "the Great Exhibition Building" and all the medals actually made in 1851 (e.g. Eimer 1460) seem to call it that. "Crystal Palace" was a nickname dreamed up by the press halfway through the Great Exhibition. It didn't become the official name until after the relocation and 1854 reopening.

Feel free to make an entry in Numista for your medal, but Numista's listings for medals is very sparse compared to its coin listing. Most medal types aren't listed there. But as far as the Internet, overall, is concerned, you've already done it. Google ""United Thus, What Foe Have We To Fear" Taylor Medal" and this thread comes up as the number 1 hit.

If this were an Australian medal, it would be listed in the very comprehensive Carlisle catalogue, but "British medals" is an extremely broad subject that hasn't been comprehensively catalogued due to the sheer scale of the issues involved; the 1800s were a time when medal-making and medal-selling was at its height. There is a catalogue of British "Commemorative medals", written by Christopher Eimer, but this medal isn't listed and wouldn't qualify for listing there because your medal is undated and doesn't really "commemorate" anything obvious; it's more a souvenir/advertising piece. Eimer also mainly lists the more expensive medals of national significance, rather than the cheap souvenir trinkets made for local events that are far more numerous.

Thank you very much Cdncoins, that information is very helpful.

Looks like I got very lucky buying a random lot of low value coins/tokens as there was something rare hiding in the tray.

The reference book sounds interesting and I will try to track down a copy.

Indeed Sap, something rare has to be desirable to at least two people for its value to go up. I don't know what I'll do with this medallion. At the moment I think I will keep. But... if some wealthy collector really wants this medallion, we can talk

While internet searches are a great tool for finding information, if the info is locked up in an unscanned book then it's basically invisible. That's where superior personal knowledge like that from Cdncoins comes in to play.

I ordered the book yesterday from the Crystal Palace Foundation. Air mail was 21 pounds, surface mail 13 pounds. I'm not in a hurry so choose the cheaper option. It will be interesting to browse what else was made during the Crystal Palace era.

Medals of the Great Exhibition, 1851
https://www.dcmmedals.co.uk/medals-...bition-1851/
Part way down, you can see an example of the reverse of your medal (Middle coin with the red ribbon on it.)