Last week Alan Luedeking wrote:

Ken Berger writes:

B.J. Herbison writes:

An entry in The E-Sylum had a picture of a medal by Jean-Baptiste Eugene Farochon and thecomment, Within five minutes I had sent my response back to Wayne, Ithen spent several sleepless hours struggling with my answer. I believe it was technically correctbut inappropriate. I don't believe Minerva appears on the medal. I also have some doubts aboutMarianne.

Minerva and Marianne never met. Allegorical figures may be identified by their attributes andMarianne often took on the attributes of Minerva. Without being told who is represented, itwould be easy to confuse the two.

The Roman Minerva is equivalent to the Greek Athena and both are seen with owls. Acombative Minerva has armor, a helmet and spear. The figure on he left of the medal has none ofthe attributes of Minerva. Marianne on the medal wears a radiant crown, an attribute for Libertyand would represent the French Republic.

The figure on the left has the attributes of machinery which, in different context, might representManufacturing or Industry. It has none of the attributes of Science.

The Roman Ceres is the equivalent of the Greek Demeter. The medal has the personification ofAgriculture on the right. Agriculture andCeres share some attributes but Agriculturelacks some of the attributes that make Ceresdistinctive. The woman on the medal ismore youthful than the matronly Ceres.

The Farochon image is reused for a varietyof prize medals. I found three that illustratethe reuse of a theme with a reverse messagethat does not relate to the obverse image.

This silver medal mentions Manufacturingbut makes no reference to Agriculture.

This bronze medal refers to a five-yearwarrantee with no reference to Industry orAgriculture.

There is a reverse for the Society of Civil Engineers with the translated text stating they wererecognized as a public utility by imperial decree. An imperial decree might justify presentationby Marianne. Would she be equally appropriate to present an award to a prize bull at a countyfair? How do Industry and Agriculture relate to Civil Engineering?

I am bothered that one side of the medal has no apparent relationship to the other. Is theiconography still valid? Would it be correct to describe this as Marianne presenting an award toIndustry and Agriculture when the other side is not an award for Industry or Agriculture. Atsome point it is just a pretty picture with no relevance.

I am bothered that I can't identify the purpose for the medal shown in The E-Sylum. How did the personifications relate to that medal?

Manufacturing and Agriculture are two types of productivity that might be honored at a fair orexposition. Some have prize medals that are unique for that event. Some, like these, use a generic image for the obverse with a custom reverse.

In my opinion, the two women standing at the sides are personifications of Industry andAgriculture and not Minerva and Ceres.

The reason for my question was precisely the fact that I was not confident of the attribution to Minerva. I very much appreciate Pete Smith's carefully reasoned reply. But he need not fret over the relationship (or lack thereof) between the obverses and reverses of the medals that sport this die. There is none. I know this from the research I originally did on the extremely rare General Edward Porter Alexander medal that was awarded to him by Nicaragua in 1900. That medal used this same die for the reverse. In my article on the Alexander piece, I wrote the following:

Thus, we can assert with complete confidence that the Republic of Nicaragua was content to save money on Alexander's medal by only commissioning the die for the obverse side of it and using the generic and unrelated but very attractive die created by Farochon for the reverse of the medal. In our opinion, engraver Godard did a fine job of assembling the desired elements ordered by Nicaragua onto this one side of the medal... [etc.]"

Thanks again to all who gave this some thought.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: DECEMBER 18, 2022 : Query: Goddess of Science and Industry(https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n51a08.html)