Emboss, Embossing. Any form of relief created by pressure from behind, as hammering with hand tools or striking with dies. reprossé is a form of hand embossed design, creating all relief by hammering thin metal from behind. Embossing dies accomplish this in production run manufacturing to form a SHELL. Embossed medals and shell medals are produced by making each side separately and joining the two, with or without a drop-in – lead or potmetal to fill the hollow inside area. Embossed models have been created for conventional medals. American artist-sculptor Americo Giannicchi uses this technique to achieve finer detail; his finest such medal was the New York State Bicentennial Medal of 1976 co-sponsored by the American Numismatic Society.