Byron Weston's star-burst design medal wasproduced by the Paris Mint in 1972. It was created by Roger Bezombes, one of France's mostprolific artists of this class of medals. He once created a medal of a stork composed of two dozenscissors. His medallic designs are wild and crazy. So he could be considered a "wild and crazyguy" (thank you, Steve Martin). Bezombes had 79 medallic items in the Paris Mint catalog of1981, plus 16 jettons. He is considered the master of creating these items.

This medal is Star of Joy. It was chosen as the tenth in a series of medals as thespecial examples from the Paris Mint's General Collection. It displays the sun in the centerand 24 rays (these are not arms as we might be wont to call them) they are sun rays. The sun ascenter is smooth, polished, and contains the lettering. In contrast, the texture of the rays isstyle rude, an artistic term meaning rough style. A numismatist would be more apt to call it"rugosity."

QUICK QUIZ: What 20th century U.S. circulating coin did Walter Breen describe as displayingrugosity?

This medal falls in the category of numismatic items called medallic objects, a termcreated by the Paris Mint, as the title of their 1985 catalog, la Medalle-Object. This catalog wasthe forerunner and displays the foremost collection of these new art objects.

Medallic objects are the modern art of medals. I once called them bas-relief unleashed,since coins and medals are made from bas-relief models. But that's about as close as they cometo traditional numismatic items. They do not have the restrictions of coins, nor the limits ofmedals. They allow their creator's imagination to run wild and express this in medallicform.

Medallic objects can be struck, but more often are cast. Casting allows them to have unlimitedshape, open areas, and freedom of design. Recently they have taken on fabrication of mixed media -metal and other compositions - and multiple parts. Fabrication is a key word here as more areassembled from separate parts, often for a contrasting color effect.

Medallic objects allow their creators more than freedom of design. After all, they are themodern art of the medallic field. And their creators' imaginations do run wild! But thislessens their appeal, it seems, as numismatic traditionalists want only coin or coin-like objects.They appeal more to art collectors, or advanced numismatists interested in art.

I have written extensively on medallic objects. When the international organization ofmedallists (FIDEM) met at the ANA headquarters in Colorado Springs in 2007 I wrote what I hopedwould be the introduction to the Exhibition Catalog. Instead the editors boiled it down to anarticle in the The Numismatist with some fine medallic illustrations. ANA gave everyattendee a copy as well as the organization's members in their monthly magazine.

"Objects of Desire" appeared in the September 2007 issue of The Numismatist.The best part was edited out, however. I claim that America invented medallic objects. ForChristmas 1965 Art in America magazine wanted a unique promotion. Their managementcommissioned a curator at the Museum of Modern Art, Edward Albert Bryant, to create somethingunique.

Bryant contacted William Louth of Medallic Art Company and the two of them developed the conceptof having seven modern art sculptors create miniature works of art that could be reproduced. Theypicked top artists in the field and commissions went out to Chryssa, Ernest Trova, Roy Gussov,Elbert Weinberg, Harold Tovish, James Wein, and Constantino Nivola.

Response was excellent for the quality and artistic distinctiveness of their creations. Medallicitems, large galvanos and two small pins -- in addition to medallion size items -- were offered byArt In America in time for 1965 Christmas gifts. That fixed the date as the first medallic objectsever, created by seven Americans!

The Paris Mint issued their first medallic objects in June 1966. This opened the gate forartists all over the world to create medallic objects. To their credit, the Paris Mint encouragedartists to submit models, virtually underwriting the new media. By the early 1970s the Paris Mintwas issuing as many as one new medallic object a day! This was particularly true under theadministrating of Pierre deHay (about whom I wrote recently in The E-Sylum).

Unfortunately, Americans could not match this pace. One stands out in my mind, however:Salute to Airmail by Roy Lichtenstein in 1968. Meanwhile, a new organization was establishedin America, the American Medallic Sculpture Association.

AMSA members quickly adopted the new medallic media. As George Cuhaj (onetime AMSA official,author and Krause publication editor) said in a recent exhibition catalog entry, "I could dothis" as he viewed what early members were creating. Since then he has created more thanthirty medallic objects.

Among traditional medals are found medallic objects in every exhibition of AMSA, and also of theinternational organization of medallists (FIDEM) created by artists around the world. While artistslike the new media. now 50 years old, medal collectors have yet to embrace it in large numbers.

While Byron Weston embraced his new find -- its shape can best be described as "unusualshape" to answer his question -- he has discovered a new numismatic media to collect. I wishothers would follow as well.

To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
JOHNSON'S MEDALLIC OBJECTS ARTICLEFEATURED IN SEPTEMBER NUMISMATIST (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n35a07.html)
MONNAIE DE PARIS COMMEMORATIVE MEDALCATALOGS (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n37a22.html)