Coronation Medal of Charles - but 1953

Ahead of the King's Coronation on 6th May, the Department of Coins and Medals at the BritishMuseum has purchased from numismatic consultant Daniel Fearon, a bronzed galvano of amedal of the King that was intended to be a speculative issue by Messrs John Pinches at the timeof his mother's Coronation in 1953. The company used several portraits of the Queen on thevarious medals they had been commissioned to strike but, it would seem, there was littlecommercial interest in a medal of Prince Charles.

The sensitive and well-modelled child portrait is not signed but almost certainly the work ofLeslie Ernest Pinches (1903-1980). Whilst no actual medals were struck a couple of trial piecescame on the market in 1987-88, when the Pinches Archive was sold in two auctions at Messrs.Glendining & Co.. The Museum also acquired galvanos of The Duke of Edinburgh and PrincessMargaret produced at the same time.