1897 Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee silver medal

[brg5658]

I have been relatively quiet this year so far with new purchases, but I picked up a new Queen Victoria silver medal this week from Atlas Numismatics. Of the 90+ silver medals commemorating the Diamond Jubilee (60th anniversary of reign) and indexed in Laurence Brown's British Historical Medals (volume 2), this is one of only 3 listed as RR (very rare, approximate mintage of 30-50 pieces). The relief on this medal in hand is just unreal -- I have no idea how many blows were required to strike it up fully on a medal press, but it is impressive. This is indexed by Brown as BHM-3535, and is indexed by Whittlestone & Ewing as #3062. Thanks to yarm for his help in looking up some of the information on this medal in Brown's book.

 

The description from Atlas:

GREAT BRITAIN. Victoria. (Queen, 1837-1901). 1897 AR Medal. PCGS SP64+. By J. Carter. 45mm. VICTORIA D:G:BRITANNIARVM REGINA F: D: INDIAE IMPERATRIX. Crowned, veiled, draped bust left; with legends on a wide raised border around / XX JVN. MDCCCXCVII/ IMPERIUM INIVIT / XX JVN. MDCCCXXXVII (20 June 1897; She began her reign 20 June 1837). Angel, seated left, holding trumpet aloft and pointing toward a shield inscribed LX which rests against a tree. Cornucopia to right of angel, steam engine and masted ship in distance, date in Roman numerals and legend on three lines below.

 

 

**Note that in the picture above (formatted to my template) I have desaturated the PCGS CoinFacts images, and decreased the red-hue so that they more accurately represent the medal in hand. I find that TrueView / CoinFacts images are consistently oversaturated and red-shifted in hue.

[rrantique]

Sweet medal Brandon.

[RWB]

Their images are red-shifted because they are in Southern California and that is moving away from the rest of the continent on the Pacific Plate.

 

PS: I still think the angel is holding a golf tee and Vicky was a closet golfer. The cornucopia represents the 19th hole where the Royals sat around sipping Gordon's Gin and making jokes about commoners.

 

PPS: Very nice medal, too!

[dcarr]

That is a neat medal and a nice state of preservation.

 

Their images are red-shifted because they are in Southern California and that is moving away from the rest of the continent on the Pacific Plate.

 

Just one hole in your theory:

In Southern California, the Pacific Plate is moving north in PARALLEL to, not away from, the North American Plate.

[RWB]

"In the Pacific Northwest movement of three tectonic plates drive our earthquake hazard. The Pacific Plate is moving to the northwest at a speed of between 7 and 11 centimeters (cm) or ~3-4 inches a year....The North American plate is moving to the west-southwest at about 2.3 cm (~1 inch) per year driven by the spreading center that created the Atlantic Ocean, the Mid Atlantic Ridge....The small Juan De Fuca Plate, moving east-northeast at 4 cm (~1.6 inches) per year, was once part of a much larger oceanic plate called the Farallon Plate. The Farallon plate used to include what is now the Cocos Plate off Mexico and Central America and the Juan de Fuca Plate in our region from N. Vancouver Island to Cape Mendicino California and a large tract of sea floor real estate in between. But the central part of the old Farallon plate vanished beneath North America. It was subducted beneath California leaving the San Andreas fault system behind as the contact between the North America and Pacific plates."

 

[source: To monitor earthquake and volcanic activity across the Pacific Northwest, the University of Washington and the University of Oregon cooperatively operate the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN). The PNSN is sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the U.S. Department of Energy, the State of Washington, and the State of Oregon.]

 

[KMAG100]

I like the metal also Brandon, Really nice!

[RWB]

The obverse looks like the work of a master engraver even though it is stamped "J.Carter & Co." on the truncation. But the reverse composition and die work is much inferior to the obverse. Any thoughts about who actually designed each side?

[dcarr]

"In the Pacific Northwest movement of three tectonic plates drive our earthquake hazard. The Pacific Plate is moving to the northwest at a speed of between 7 and 11 centimeters (cm) or ~3-4 inches a year....The North American plate is moving to the west-southwest at about 2.3 cm (~1 inch) per year driven by the spreading center that created the Atlantic Ocean, the Mid Atlantic Ridge....The small Juan De Fuca Plate, moving east-northeast at 4 cm (~1.6 inches) per year, was once part of a much larger oceanic plate called the Farallon Plate. The Farallon plate used to include what is now the Cocos Plate off Mexico and Central America and the Juan de Fuca Plate in our region from N. Vancouver Island to Cape Mendicino California and a large tract of sea floor real estate in between. But the central part of the old Farallon plate vanished beneath North America. It was subducted beneath California leaving the San Andreas fault system behind as the contact between the North America and Pacific plates."

 

[source: To monitor earthquake and volcanic activity across the Pacific Northwest, the University of Washington and the University of Oregon cooperatively operate the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN). The PNSN is sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the U.S. Department of Energy, the State of Washington, and the State of Oregon.]

 

 

The movement of the tectonic plates in the Pacific Northwest region is different than the Southern California Region. The Juan De Fuca Plate does not extend south of the San Francisco area.