MEDAL, a piece of metal in the form of a coin, intending to convey to posterity the portrait of some great person, or the memory of some illustrious action. The parts of a medal are the two sides, one of which is called the face or head, and the other the reverse. On each side is the area, or field, which makes the middle of the medal ; the rim, or border ; and the exergue, or plain circular space just within the edge : and on the two sides are distinguished the type, or the figure represented, and the legend, or inscrip tion. Egyptian medals are the most ancient ; but the Grecian medals far excel all others in design, attitude, strength, and delicacy. Those of the Romans are beautiful, the engraving fine, the inven tion simple, and the taste exquisite. They are distinguished into consular and imperial ; the consular medals are the most ancient, though the copper and silver ones do mint go farther back than the 481th year of Rome, and those of gold no farther than the year 816. Among the imperial medals, a distinction is made between those of the upper and lower em pire. The first commenced under Julius
Cmsar, and continued till A.D. 260: the lower empire includes a space of nearly 1200 years, and ends with the taking of Constantinople. The use of medals is very considerable : they often throw great light on history. in confirming such pas sages as are true in old authors, in reconciling such as a-re variously narra ted, and in recording such as have been omitted. In this case a cabinet of medals may be said to ho a body of history. It was, indeed, an excellent way to perpetu ate the memory of great actions, thus to coin out the life of an emperor, and to put every exploit into the mint—a kind of printing before the art was invented. Nor are medals of less use in architec ture, painting, 1.?oetry, 4t.c.; for a cabinet of medals is a collection of pictures in miniature, and by them the plans of many of the most considerable buildings of antiquity are preserved.