The only Oriental nation that appears to have issued medals at an early period is the Chinese, military medals having been used duridg tho Ilan dynasty, A.D. 10, and being kept up till the present day. Few or no medals exist of Indian states, except the supposed gold medal of Jehanghir, A.D. 1611, representing that monarch holding a Bower on one side, and the constellation Leo o the other, which is probably a coin ; and the large piece of Shah Jehan, made at Delhi, A.n. 1617.
The study of medals is, in its class, of great importance. It is indis pensable to the historian and the antiquary, and hardly less valuable to the man of taste. To the former, medals often afford information that cannot be obtained by other means, in the Inscriptions, legends, and allegories with which they are cha;ged • while to the artist and connoisseur many of them offer not only exceedingly beautiful examples of art, but, if their authenticity can be depended on, a series of medals of any nation is one of the best authorities that can be consulted for the state of the arts of design of any particular period.
. Modern medals differ in their art and treatment greatly from the Roman medallions, the last representing a few political and religious ideas treated in an allegorical manner, while medals represent the busts of distinguished persons, or of allegorical personages, subjects treated in an allegorical manner derived from the antique, or various events represented in a pictorial rather than a glyphic manner—sieges, build ings, edifices, instruments, machines, and other objects of nature, art, or civilisation. Amongst the moderns, medals take the place of honorary rewards for merit, either in intellectual acquirements, mili tary, civil, or social services, and have replaced the crowns, trappings, and torques presented by Greece and Rome to illustrious citizens.
As early as Henry IV. of France, and during the 17th century,-it became the practice for monarchs to present medals, having their portraits, attached to gold chains, to statesmen, and men of letters. Such chains and medals were presented by the Parliament In the days of the Commonwealth to Blake and his captains, and Elizabeth conferred similar rewards on those who aided to overthrow the Armada. While, too, the medallions convey little information beyond that imparted by coins, the range of subjects in modern modals will convey to posterity representations of buildings, inven tions, and events probably long after all other knowledge of them has perished, and will prove invaluable aids to the future students of chronology, history, and the arts.
It would be an almost endless tank to enumerate the works that have been written on medals. The principal works on modern medals are those of Fleuremont, Godennesche, Lenormant, and tfillingen, for those of Franco ; Van Loon has described those of Belgium and the Low Countries ; Hedlingcr and Brenner those of Sweden, Denmark, and Russia; Evelyn and Pinkerton those of Eng land; lilmzuchelli, the Italian medals of the Cinque-Canto period; Klotz, the satyrical pieces ; and Koehne, some of Germany. See Bolzenthal, Ii., ' Skims en zur IC.unstgeschichte der Mcdaillen-Arbeit,' 8vo, Berlin, 1640.