Hard at Work-The Diary of Leonard Wyon 1853-1867
by P. Attwood.
British Numismatic Society Special Publication No. 9
£45.00
Hardback with jacket, 488 pp. illustrated throughout

Leonard Wyon (1826-1891) was Victorian Britain's foremostdesigner of coins and medals. The diary that he kept from 1853 to1867 throws light on many of Wyon's most important works:official commissions, including the famous 'bun' penny of QueenVictoria, coins destined for India, Australia and Canada, campaignmedals awarded for service in the various mid nineteenth-centurymilitary and naval actions in which Britain was engaged, and theprize medal for the 1862 International Exhibition.

Other medalswere commissioned by the Queen herself, as well as by a broadrange of learned societies, academic institutions, commercialconcerns and private individuals.

Wyon's diary also chronicles themore personal aspects of his daily life and domestic arrangements,revealing the ways in which he and his extensive family occupiedtheir leisure hours and documenting such activities as his visits toexhibitions and his opinions on the works of art he saw, hisshopping excursions in London, his holidays in Britain and abroad,and - most importantly in Wyon's view - the religious services heattended and the philanthropic ventures that, as an EvangelicalChristian, he saw it as his duty to support.

This book includes a fully annotated transcription of the diary, anintroduction discussing all aspects of Leonard Wyon's life, andappendices giving detailed accounts of the production of all theworks by Wyon mentioned in the diary.

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