Vespasian Pax medal.

[JayAg47]

A nice chunky medal imitating a sestertius of Vespasian with Pax reverse. I bought it for few reasons, mainly for the nice high relief portrait and it only cost me $20 from a French ebay dealer. Weighing 51.76 grams and measuring 40 cm in diameter, it doesn't attempt to pass itself off as a genuine sestertius. Although, I don't know who made it or when it was made, except somewhere in Paris with a cornucopia mint mark below Vespasian's neck. 

 

And next to my genuine Pax sestertius. Does anyone know the specific type from which the medal is copied?

Edited May 12 by JayAg47

[CPK]

That medal is actually very well-done! Scale it down a bit and it could pass for a Paduan.

[AETHER]

That's cool, I seen a Philip II Tetradrachm repro from a French dealer, that was beautiful, in bronze, like a giant medal, however, it was extremely expensive. 

 

[DonnaML]

12 hours ago, JayAg47 said:

A nice chunky medal imitating a sestertius of Vespasian with Pax reverse. I bought it for few reasons, mainly for the nice high relief portrait and it only cost me $20 from a French ebay dealer. Weighing 51.76 grams and measuring 40 cm in diameter, it doesn't attempt to pass itself off as a genuine sestertius. Although, I don't know who made it or when it was made, except somewhere in Paris with a cornucopia mint mark below Vespasian's neck. 

 

And next to my genuine Pax sestertius. Does anyone know the specific type from which the medal is copied?

@JayAg47, I believe that what you have is either an original, or more likely a restrike (given the cornucopiae mark and given that the originals were supposed to be numbered on the edge and 63 mm. in diameter, whereas you said yours is 40 mm.), of a medal struck ca. 1973-1974 at the Paris Mint (la Monnaie de Paris) for the French Numismatic Club (Le Club Français de la Médaille). See CGMP [Catalogue général illustré des éditions de la Monnaie de Paris] Vol. 1 (De l'Antiquité à Louis XVI) (Paris 1977)] at pp. 27-28(E):

The reason I estimated the date of the medal as 1973-74 is that the French Medal Club, which was founded in 1963 and existed until the 1990s, apparently issued four medals (and bulletins) per year, which would place the 42nd selection (see above) in approximately 1973-74. Certainly it was issued before the publication of the cited catalog in 1977. See the article about the Club at https://journals.openedition.org/artefact/2459 .

Edited May 12 by DonnaML

[JayAg47]

1 hour ago, DonnaML said:

@JayAg47, I believe that what you have is either an original, or more likely a restrike (given the cornucopiae mark and given that the originals were supposed to be numbered on the edge and 63 mm. in diameter, whereas you said yours is 40 mm.), of a medal struck ca. 1973-1974 at the Paris Mint (la Monnaie de Paris) for the French Numismatic Club (Le Club Français de la Médaille). See CGMP [Catalogue général illustré des éditions de la Monnaie de Paris] Vol. 1 (De l'Antiquité à Louis XVI) (Paris 1977)] at pp. 27-28(E):

The reason I estimated the date of the medal as 1973-74 is that the French Medal Club, which was founded in 1963 and existed until the 1990s, apparently issued four medals (and bulletins) per year, which would place the 42nd selection (see above) in approximately 1973-74. Certainly it was issued before the publication of the cited catalog in 1977. See the article about the Club at https://journals.openedition.org/artefact/2459 .

That’s a great information! I did see some sellers having the larger version but also priced at 100-200 dollars, probably the original issues. However, there are no markings on the edge on mine. 

Edited May 13 by JayAg47

[DonnaML]

5 minutes ago, JayAg47 said:

That’s a great information! I did see some sellers having the larger version but also priced at 100-200 dollars, probably the original issues. However, there are no markings on the edge on mine. 

Then it would seem that yours is a restrike of the original reproduction, issued sometime after the early 1970s. There's probably no way to narrow that time-frame. It was very nicely done in any event. Hopefully nobody's ever tried to pass off one of these as ancient, in either size.

[David Atherton]

10 hours ago, DonnaML said:

@JayAg47, I believe that what you have is either an original, or more likely a restrike (given the cornucopiae mark and given that the originals were supposed to be numbered on the edge and 63 mm. in diameter, whereas you said yours is 40 mm.), of a medal struck ca. 1973-1974 at the Paris Mint (la Monnaie de Paris) for the French Numismatic Club (Le Club Français de la Médaille). See CGMP [Catalogue général illustré des éditions de la Monnaie de Paris] Vol. 1 (De l'Antiquité à Louis XVI) (Paris 1977)] at pp. 27-28(E):

The reason I estimated the date of the medal as 1973-74 is that the French Medal Club, which was founded in 1963 and existed until the 1990s, apparently issued four medals (and bulletins) per year, which would place the 42nd selection (see above) in approximately 1973-74. Certainly it was issued before the publication of the cited catalog in 1977. See the article about the Club at https://journals.openedition.org/artefact/2459 .

I wonder if the medal is from 1973, considering they copied an obverse dated to 73!

Edited May 13 by David Atherton

[Postvmvs]

Interesting curiosity. Based on the appearance, such as the slight off-center and roughness on the reverse around 10 to 11 o'clock, it looks to be created from an actual coin. It would, at least in theory, be possible to track down the one they used as the model.

I wonder if they made a plaster mold of the original and used a Janvier lathe to increase the size.