103381 | GREAT BRITAIN. Great Exhibition bronze Award Medal.

103381  |  GREAT BRITAIN. Great Exhibition bronze Award Medal. Issued 1851 and awarded to C. & W. Rowlands (76mm, 12h). By William & Leonard Charles Wyon at the Royal mint in London.

 

VICTORIA D: G: BRIT: REG: F: D: • ALBERTUS PRINCEPS CONJUX / MDCCCLI, jugate heads left of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, laureate and with hair in bun; below, two dolphins swimming toward one another; ornamented trident head to right // DISSOCIATA LOCIS CONCORDI PACE LIGAVIT (it has bound together in peace and friendship things widely separated), Britannia seated right, conferring laurel wreath upon female allegory of Industry; behind her, female allegories of Africa, America, Asia, and Europe look upon. Edge: C. & W. ROWLANDS.

 

BHM 2462; Eimer 1456; Jones, William Wyon, 218. PCGS SP-58.

 

The "Great Exhibition" was born following the successes of the Paris Exposition in 1849. With Great Britain wishing to exert her preeminence in the world of commerce and industry, a grand event was created in 1851, with an equally grand venue to host it. The Crystal Palace, a monumentally large cast iron and sheet glass structure built at Hyde Park contained the event, with nearly 1 million square feet of exhibition space. The specific theme of the gathering was to convey the latest developments in the Industrial Revolution, with numerous award medals handed out to the winners in various categories.

 

In his magnificent opus on William Wyon and his wondrous art, Mark Jones notes that Wyon and the mint were under great stress to produce enough of this medal as would be needed for the associated awards. So large, thick, and full of relief was it that it required numerous strikings upon planchets that were the right size in order to strike up the intended degree of relief. Outside help was indeed necessary, and this entire ordeal caused a fair amount of concern for its artist.

 

Upload: 19 December 2025.