102556 | GERMANY. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach bronze Medal.

102556  |  GERMANY. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach bronze Medal. Issued circa 1825-1845. Commemorating the Jubilee of the Anthropologist's Doctorate (50mm, 68.90 g, 12h). By Heinrich Gube for Gottfried Bernhard Loos in Berlin.

 

I FR BLUMENBACH NATO GOTHAE D 11 MAII 1752 DOCT CREATO GOTTINGAE D 19 SEPT 1775, bust left // NATURAE INTERPRETI OSSA LOQUI IUBENTI PHYSIOSOPHILI GERMANICI D 19 SEPT 1825, three human skulls, as classified by Blumenbach: Caucasian, Ethiopian, and Mongolian. Edge: Plain.

 

Storer 398; Brettauer 125. PCGS MS-63. Deep glossy red-brown surfaces. An ever-interesting and haunting type.

 

Blumenbach was an anthropologist from the University of Göttingen and specialized in the study and classification of human skulls from around the world—later known as craniometry. At the time of his death, he owned 245 whole skulls and fragments, along with two mummies. The term ‘caucasian’ as a descriptor of race was also derived from him, as his influential use of it in 1795 quickly caught on in scientific circles. For more information on Blumenbach and a modern analysis of his career—as well as a reference to this medallic issue—visit Nell Irvin Painter’s “Why White People Are Called ‘Caucasian?’.”

 

This medal would have likely been commissioned by close family, friends, and/or colleagues of Blumenbach in celebration of the jubilee of his doctorate, as such practice was very much en vogue. Rather than commissioning a portrait, for example, which would exist singularly and in a fixed position, a medal, in contrast, could be made in a small quantity across various metal types to be given not just to the honoree, but to others as well in the form of a keepsake. Furthermore, the size of the medal allowed for easy transport, and for one to carry it with one's self in remembrance. As the Loos mint was an enterprising establishment, examples of this medal (across medal types such as gold, silver, bronze, gilt bronze, and even iron) could continue to be ordered per the firm's product brochure in 1842 (though cast iron, known for this type as well as others among the oeuvre of Loos, is curiously not mentioned in the brochure). While this cataloger has handled numerous in bronze (easily more than anyone else), just a few in silver and iron have been offered, with none even seen in gilt bronze or especially gold.

 

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Upload: 17 October 2025.