Medallic Art Collector

Frequently Asked Questions

There's Some Incorrect Information on the Site!

I'm not surprised! I'm learning about medals as I go and it would be a miracle if everything were correct. Harry Waterson, the Kilenyi specialist, has kindly and gently pointed out to me that in mumismatics the measurement convention is height x width, not width x height. It would take me forever to correct that in all the places where it would need to be corrected and lead to inconsistencies until completely done. Instead, I'll just apologize and take full responsibility.

Help me by pointing out factual errors and I'll do my best to correct them. Trust me, I am flattered, not annoyed, when a specialist takes the time to correct me.

How Are Art Medals Different from Coins?

Coins are issued by official, national mints as currency. In theory, the government always knows how many coins of a certain kind were made and there are strict laws governing reproduction; just in case you are wondering: reproduction is forbidden!

Medals on the other hand can theoretically be issued by anyone with the proper machinery. Often it is not known exactly how many medals of a certain kind were made. As private mints go out of business, their records are lost or even intentionally destroyed. In addition, popular designs were often reproduced. The only laws governing the reproduction of medals are copyright laws and some fairly recent laws trying to prevent forgeries.

Coin valuations are extremely sensitive to quality. A minute blemish only visible under a magnifying glass can have a dramatic impact on value.

Medals are much less sensitive to quality. Appearance matters but people who appreciate objects for their artistic rather than their monetary value tend to be a bit more forgiving about tiny imperfections or small nicks.

Just to complicate things a bit more, small medals are sometimes also refered to as "coins" (or "tokens") but that's just a semantic distinction.

If People Can Just Make More, Do Art Medals Have "Real" Value?

Well, paintings can be copied too, but the original is worth much more than a print or even a facsimile. If you stay away from the schlock medals that are made in mintages of thousands, art medals have a real lasting value. As with any collectible, values fluctuate and the market at any given time might not be large. Good collectible medals typically have mintages in the tens or hundreds. That puts them somewhere between unique pieces of art and the more "liquid" numismatic collectibles like coins or stamps. There are auction houses that specialize in medals and they are doing a steady business. Rare bronze medals that are not even a hundred years old and have no material value to speak of can sell for several thousand dollars at auction...

Why Should I Collect Art Medals?

Why collect anything? Maybe you shouldn't. I can only give you my answer. I came to medallic art relatively late. When I was young, I never really appreciated sculptural art. As I grew older, I started appreciating sculptural works, particularly works from the late 19th and early 20th century. Unfortunately, good sculptural objects cost a lot of money and are hard to display. While researching famous sculptors on-line, I discovered that they had also frequently made art medals and I fell in love with them. The good ones shared many qualities with their bigger sculptural counterparts while being more affordable and easier to store and enjoy. You typically do not need a storage vault to hold your collection.

What's a Good Price for an Art Medal?

Oh boy... that's an issue I've struggled with. Sometimes people offer me a medal for sale and when they hear what I'm willing to pay they say: "But it's listed for $600 on eBay!" And they're right: it is listed at $600. Mind you, it hasn't sold for $600 and I know it's been listed at that price for several years now...

Lesson 1 — eBay offer prices are not realized prices!

Occasionally, a medal sells on eBay for way more than it should. I have personally observed medals that I own for $40 to $80 trade for more than $600. I don't understand it, but it happens and then a novice might think that $600 is the medal's legitimate value. Unfortunately, that is not the case. I have also bought some medals that regularly trade for several hundred dollars for $40 to $60 (rarely). That does not mean that all other medals of this kind have now lost a lot of value. It just means that I got a good deal because someone didn't know what they were doing and there were not enough buyers around to give me competition.

At one memorable auction where many silver Society of Medalists medals were offered, I put a bid of $1,000 on the rare Marcel Jovine disk in silver. I already owned one that I feared I had paid too much for ($1,500) and wanted to average down. That medal ended up selling for $9,000! Just a few weeks later, another one came up at a different auction and it went for $1,600... I want to believe that my medal is worth the $9,000 that someone was willing to pay for it, but I'm afraid its value is much closer to what I paid for it.

Lesson 2 — One sale does not (necessarily) establish a valid price point!

You can try using a service like Worthpoint or study historic auction listings, but beware of putting way too much value on what you find. Rarer medals are thinly traded and old prices might not represent present market realities. In general, a medal is worth what two people are willing to pay for it. Why two people? Because the high bid is just one notch higher than the losing bid. It's really the losing bidder who defines the value at auction because he's still out there without his prize and you know what he's willing to pay if you have exactly the same item. I'm usually quite happy when I lose out on a medal because it means that other people were willing to pay more and that means I'm probably not making (terribly) stupid buying decisions.

Lesson 3 — Nothing beats following auctions and listings for a long time, i.e. acquiring experience.

Are Art Medals a Good Investment?

That's a really tough question. Most people overrate the investment quality of collectibles. To list the negatives: all collectibles go through cycles, they are affected by macro-economic trends, and they are much less liquid than you might wish when you need to convert them to cash. That being said: I like art medals as an investment but only because I enjoy them and plan on holding them for a long time. I like that they are usually not unique, meaning that there are comparables that you can use to gauge what a reasonable price might be. Yet they are not so common that they become a commodity. They strike a nice balance of being pieces of art and tradable goods. For me, they exist in a sweet spot.

How Do I Start a Collection?

The most important thing you have to do is to figure out limits. You don't necessarily have to do that right away; it can happen as you start buying medals that you like, but you really need to develop a focus. There are way too many medals and if your only criterion is "What I like" you will end up having a lot of objects but no collection.

Focus on a country (still very large), or an artist (can be too small or too large), or a subject (dogs, planes, sports, etc.), or a style (Art-Deco), or a time period (early 20th century). It does not matter what it is, just pick something that you consistently feel passionate about and that will provide the core around which you build your collection. This will allow you to become "picky" when you go through medal listings, rather than being tempted by everything and always disappointed that you can't afford them all.

Can I Contact You?

Yes. I enjoy hearing from other collectors and don't mind answering questions... if I can.

You can offer your medals to me for sale. If the medal is not on the website (or there is a note that I got the medal images from someone else) I might be interested in buying it from you. I will certainly not be annoyed and if I'm interested I usually pay better than dealers who still need to make a profit.

You can ask whether I am willing to sell a medal to you. Not highly likely, but I certainly won't be offended. Sometimes I have duplicates or I bought some medals that I'm not terribly interested in as part of a package, so you might be lucky. If you make me an impossible-to-resist offer, I might even sell you one that I like and don't have in duplicate. At some point I might put together a fixed price list for the medals that I'm willing to sell. Ask me for it if you're interested.

You can also ask me for medal valuations. I am not an appraiser (see also the Legal section), I specialize on a small sector of a very large field, and what I tell you might be completely wrong, but I'll give you an honest opinion. Of course if you are considering selling the medal to me, it's up to you whether you trust a valuation given by the person you're trying to sell to.