101412 | AUSTRIA. Orpheus and the Animals/End of the War zinc Medal.

101412  |  AUSTRIA. Orpheus and the Animals/End of the War zinc Medal. Issued 1918 (100mm, 210.01 g, 12h). By Prof. J. Müllner.

 

Orpheus seated right upon stump, playing lyre; parrot on branch to left, owl on branch to right / Cassowary, lioness, kangaroo, butterfly, and fish. Edge: «clover».

 

Rollettmuseums Baden, M-1068; British Museum, 1986,0630.4. Choice Mint State. Deep gray surfaces, with some underlying brilliance; some light rub on the highpoints. A very rare and impressive type.

 

It is difficult to determine if Müllner was attempting to make a statement about the end of the war and a cessation to all of the fighting between so many great powers, but the iconography employing various aspects of disparate fauna can be an allegory for the various nations once at war, now at peace and harmony.

 

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