Commemorative and art medals, plaquettes, tokens and jetons (military and civil awards are under Militaria).
Medals were made to remember: coronations, battles, exhibitions, scientists and artists. Tokens and
jetons stood in for money in shops, mines and counting houses. Both are struck or cast like coins,
but they are described by their occasion and their artist rather than by a face value.
Plaquettes: small rectangular reliefs, popular from the Renaissance
to Art Nouveau.
Tokens and jetons: trade tokens, reckoning counters, and tokens for
transport, games or communication.
A theme works well: one medallist, one city’s events, a historical period, or the tokens of one
trade. Military and civil awards belong to Militaria, where orders and decorations have a data sheet
of their own.
What to Record
Occasion and subject: what or whom the medal commemorates, and the date.
Artist and maker: the medallist’s signature on the piece, and the mint or foundry.
Obverse and reverse: the design and the inscriptions as read.
Metal, weight, diameter and edge, as for coins; many medals were struck in several metals.
Struck or cast: a cast medal comes from a mould and shows it in its surface. Later casts of
famous medals are common, so note what tells yours apart.
References: the standard catalogue of the series if there is one, and auction references.
Provenance: where it came from, and its case or box if it has one.
Condition and Grading
Medals use the coin grading terms (Fine, Very Fine, Extremely Fine, Uncirculated), but collectors
value the original patina and finish above all. Note rim knocks, scratches, cleaning, lacquer and
mounting holes. A medal in its original case and with its documents is worth more than the same
medal alone.
Care and Storage
Store medals in trays or capsules that do not touch the relief, away from PVC, from wood that gives
off acids and from changes in humidity. Never polish a medal: the patina is part of it.
Mistakes to Avoid
Taking a later restrike or cast for the original issue.
Cleaning bronze medals until the patina is gone.
Separating a medal from its case or certificate.
Kinds of Medals & Tokens
Commemorative & Art MedalsMedals struck or cast to honour people and events, or as works of art.
The 27 fields worth recording for medals & tokens, grouped as in the
ordicio app.
Identification
Occasion / subject Text
Person, event or idea the medal honours.
Medallist Text
Artist who designed or engraved the medal, e.g. Karl Goetz, Oscar Roty.
Issuer Text
State, ruler, city or bank that issued the piece, e.g. Roman Empire, Kingdom of France, Free City of Hamburg, Deutsche Bundesbank.
Year Year
Year of making, issue or publication when known exactly.
Mint Text
Mint or place of striking, e.g. Philadelphia, Paris, Rome, Antioch.
Catalogue references Text
Catalogue numbers with the catalogue named; coins KM, Numista N, Schoen, Jaeger (J.), ancient RIC, RRC, RPC, Sear (SG), SNG; banknotes Pick, Rosenberg, Friedberg.
Design
Obverse Text
Front (head) side, design and legend as read, e.g. bust of Trajan right; IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC.
Reverse Text
Back side, design and legend as read.
Physical
Metal Choice, or your own
Main metal or alloy.
17 choices
Gold
Silver
Billon
Electrum
Platinum
Palladium
Copper
Bronze
Brass
Nickel
Copper-nickel
Nickel-brass
Aluminium
Aluminium-bronze
Zinc
Iron / steel
Bimetallic
Weight (g) Number
Weight of the object (without stand, frame or holder unless noted).
Diameter (mm) Number
Diameter at the widest point.
Shape Choice, or your own
Outline of the flan.
Round
Polygonal
Scalloped
Square
Holed
Irregular (hammered / cut)
Edge Choice, or your own
Treatment of the edge.
Plain
Reeded
Lettered
Decorated
Security edge
Interrupted reeding
Edge inscription Text
Lettering on the edge as read, e.g. EINIGKEIT UND RECHT UND FREIHEIT.
Condition
Grade Choice
Condition by wear on the Sheldon scale, with the German abbreviation; uncirculated and proof grades are refined by the numeric grade.
11 choices
Poor (P-1)
Fair (FR-2)
About good (AG-3)
Good (G-4 to G-6; ge)
Very good (VG-8 to VG-10; s-)
Fine (F-12 to F-15; s)
Very fine (VF-20 to VF-35; ss)
Extremely fine (EF-40 to EF-45; vz)
About uncirculated (AU-50 to AU-58; vz-st)
Uncirculated (MS-60 to MS-70; st)
Proof (PR-60 to PR-70; PP)
Condition notes Text
Faults, wear and damage in detail.
Acquisition
How and when the object came into the collection.
Acquisition date Date
Date the object came into the collection.
Acquisition method Choice, or your own
How the object came into the collection.
Purchase
Auction
Gift
Inheritance
Exchange / trade
Self-collected / found
Commission
Acquired from Text
Seller, auction house (with sale and lot number), donor or place where it was found.
Purchase price Amount
Price paid including fees and premiums.
Provenance Text
Earlier owners and the object's history, oldest first, with sources (labels, invoices, sale catalogues).
Value
Estimated and insured value.
Estimated value Amount
Current market value as estimated.
Valuation date Date
Date of the current value estimate.
Valuation basis Choice
What the estimated value is based on.
Own estimate
Recent sales / auction results
Dealer offer
Catalogue value
Professional appraisal
Insurance valuation
Insured value Amount
Sum the object is insured for.
Collection record
Your own inventory data.
Inventory number Text
Your own number or label for the object, e.g. C-0042, as written on its label or album page.
Storage location Text
Where the object is kept, e.g. room, cabinet, drawer, album and page, box.
Standards and References
The data sheets follow the standards collectors, dealers and museums use:
Sheldon 70-point grading scale as used by PCGS, NGC (coins) and PMG, PCGS Banknote (paper money)
NGC Ancients grading (adjectival grade with strike and surface on a 5-point scale)
Standard Catalog of World Coins (Krause, KM numbers), Numista; RIC, RRC (Crawford), RPC, Sear, SNG for ancient coins
Standard Catalog of World Paper Money (Pick numbers), Rosenberg (Germany), Friedberg (USA)
Object ID (obverse/reverse description as inscriptions and markings)
Updated October 24, 2026
Analytics cookies? We'd like to use Google Analytics to see which guides and help pages are useful. It sets cookies and sends usage data to Google (USA). Nothing else is tracked.
Privacy
