History of the Medals
The medals were part of an attempt to regulate brokers at the Royal Exchange in London. The brokers bought and a wide variety of goods and commodities such as gold, silver, cotton, cloth, stocks, and the like. Beginning in 1697, a broker was issued a silver medal by the city as proof that they were properly licensed. The broker had to carry his medal and produce it upon a customer’s request. This practice seems to have fallen by the wayside by the Victorian era, as medals from that period usually show little if any signs of wear.
The medals were issued between 1697 and 1886, a period of 189 years. No records exist pinpointing the date that the first medal was issued to a broker, but it was certainly sometime between May 1697 and December 1697. The last medal was issued to a broker on October 28, 1886.
In 1697, the original number of brokers was limited to 100, no more than 12 of whom could be Jewish. The requirement limiting the total number of brokers was lifted in 1707, however the limitation on the number of Jewish brokers remained until the 1830’s.
As a general rule, brokers did not have to separately pay for their medals, and the cost was likely an element of their annual fees. Medals belonging to Jewish brokers, however, were an exception to the rule. A Jewish broker could sell or give his medal to another Jewish broker upon retirement. Due to the cap on the number of Jewish brokers, the price could be quite high. For example, in 1815, Sir Moses Montefiore paid £1,625 (roughly £110,000 in 2017) for his medal. In 1831, Sir Moses gave his brokers’ medal to his brother as a gift. Sir Moses wrote in his diary, “May heaven prosper his endeavours with it.” The Lord Mayor of London personally profited from these transactions because the practice of paying him a transfer fee, sometimes called a fine soon developed. Sir Moses had to pay an additional £600 to the Lord Mayor when he originally obtained his medal in 1815 and had to pay another £100 to the Lord Mayor in 1831 when he gave it to his brother.
If a Jewish broker died before transferring his medal, the Lord Mayor could sell it to the highest bidder and pocket the sales price. Fees reportedly increased from £500 to upwards of £1500 over the years. The practice was heavily criticized and stories of mayors ghoulishly hovering over dying brokers abound in the literature, but the practice continued until the late 1830’s. By that time, the cap on the number of Jewish brokers was eliminated.
Even though the contemporary sources say that the medals of Jewish brokers were “sold” or transferred to others as gifts, the evidence does not support the premise that the same set of medals were passed successively from one broker to the next. The Lindo family’s ability to keep their medals over the generations supports the notion that one who purchased a medal was actually just buying the right to be one of the 12; the purchaser would receive a new medal issued in his name.
Design of the Medals
The basic design, size and composition of the medals remained unchanged throughout the years. The diameter was about 40 mm, and they were generally 2 mm thick. There is little variation in the weight, which was about 26 grams. Only the early varieties have integral suspension loops.
The basic design remained the same throughout the entire series: the Royal arms on the obverse and the arms of the Corporation of London on the reverse. The reverse also had a blank space for the name of the broker. Changes to the Royal arms over the years accounted for the fundamental changes in the overall design of the piece.
Early medals may have been cased, but, if so, none of the cases appear to have survived. The nineteenth century medals struck by Benjamin Wyon regularly appear in fitted, boxwood cases, covered in maroon leather, with his shop ticket printed on the inside lid. Many of these nineteenth century cases survive in the examples of medals held by the London Metropolitan archives.
A few examples of the nineteenth century medals exist in bronze, and they are presumed to be specimen or trial strikes.
Methods of Manufacturing Medals
Manufacturing techniques of medals went through three basic phases. The earliest medals were a cast flan with an integral suspension loop. All details were engraved. These types were produced between 1697 and approximately 1706. Between 1707 and 1714, the medals were cast, and the only engraved portion was the owner’s name. Between 1715 and approximately 1765, the medals took an inexplicable backward step. Most of the design was cast, but the arms of the City of London and the Royal arms were engraved. On all examples, the engraving is crude, even by contemporary standards. Around 1765, the medals were struck, and that method of manufacture continued through to the end of the series in 1886. All medals, regardless of when they were made, had plain edges.
Existing documents do not indicate who made the early medals. One can speculate that because the Court of Aldermen charged Sir Francis Child and Sir John Johnson, both goldsmiths, to procure the first medals in 1697, they or someone from their workshops had a hand in their manufacture.
The first maker to sign a medal was John Milton, who supplied the medals used between 1801 and 1830. Medals issued after 1830 bear the name “WYON” and “B. WYON F.” for Benjamin Wyon. A few medals dating from the 1830’s are signed “J • Davis •,” and they are attributed to Joseph Davis. Davis, however, supposedly never engraved any medals; he allegedly only struck medals from dies prepared for him by others.
System of Cataloging the Medals
The medals are divided into seven major types, reflecting the seven changes in the Royal arms between 1697 and 1886. While the medals vary stylistically, each has the same general design prescribed by the 1697 Act: the obverse depicts the Royal arms and the reverse depicts the arms of the Corporation of London over a space for the broker’s name. The earliest types depict only the Royal arms, while later designs had the full achievement of the Royal arms.
The numbering system used below chronologically divides the medals into the seven major types, based on the different forms of the Royal arms. Stylistic variations in design form the subtypes. It is hoped that this method of cataloging will make it relatively easy to incorporate new designs if and when they surface.
The estimated numbers are derived from a survey of the index of brokers’ bonds held by the London Metropolitan Archives. No central list of brokers and, more importantly for this purpose, no central list of when they were sworn, exists. The various regulations and statutes over the years required that lists be regularly posted in London, but not enough of these survive to be of much help. The Court of Aldermen records indicate when a broker was approved, but those records are of limited help because an approved broker did not always follow through and post a bond and obtain a medal. Thus, a survey of those brokers who actually posted bonds will be reliable to judge the relative rarity of the various types of medals. The numbers for each medal also assume that a new design was introduced promptly in the same year that the Royal arms changed. Finally, the estimates exclude bronze examples.