103051 | SWITZERLAND. Bern. Silver Academic Prize Medal or "Gärtnerpfennig".

103051  |  SWITZERLAND. Bern. Silver Academic Prize Medal or "Gärtnerpfennig". Issued circa 1820 for outstanding pupils in the canton (30mm, 7.43 g, 11h).

 

CULTURA MITESCIT (culture ripens), gardener kneeling right, trimming a sapling; basket of shoots to right; PRÆM DILIG (a prize for diligence) in exergue // RESPUBLICA BERNENSIS, crowned cantonal coat-of-arms of Bern within wreath composed of olive branch and palm frond. Edge: Fluted (horizontal leaf reeding).

 

SM 712; Meier & Häusler 173. Choice Mint State. Deeply toned, with a great iridescence and brilliance revealed when cradled back and forth.

 

Quite popular in the canton of Bern during the 18th and early 19th centuries, the so-called “Gärtnerpfennigs,” of “gardener’s pennies,” were a special form of scholastic prize given to deserving students for their academic achievements. They featured a kneeling gardener on one side, as the gardener was considered an allegory of diligence.

 

Upload: 19 May 2025.