MEDALS STRUCK BY THE CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF LONDON

This group of medals, commonly called The City of London Medals, constitutes a series struck by THE CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF LONDON to celebrate the accomplishment of their most notable public works, or to commemorate events of national and civic importance. The standard reference book, published in London, 1894, is NUMISMATA LONDINENSIA, which includes those medals issued from 1831 to 1893.  In this wonderful book, the medals are photographed and the events prompting their issue are described in great detail by Charles Welch. Subsequent to the publication of Numismata Londinensia, several other medals have been issued by the Corporation of London. Those medals issued from 1831 to 1973 are described in Coins and Medals, November 1977, where their mintage figures are provided (most of the medals were struck in numbers between 350 and 450; a notable exception is the lead, glass enclosed piece commemorating the Removal of Temple Bar from the City of London, which is extremely rare). Descriptions and other interesting historical notes are included in excellent compendia published more recently. (see British Historical Medals by Laurence Brown, and British Commemorative Medals and their values by Christopher Eimer.)

In general, the medals in this series are of particularly high quality as they were executed by some of the finest medallists of the period, including several members of the Wyon family, the sculptor George C. Adams, the Belgium medallist Charles Wiener, and the fine Austrian medallist Anton Scharff.

The present site includes photographs and descriptions of almost all of the medals in this series. Several of them are in their original cases and some are in the original boxed set of two. The latter sets, in particular, are especially rare. Photographs of all the boxed medals in their original cases of issue are presented in the City of London Appendix.

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