Origins of medals date back to the fourth century BCE, when medals were given as a form of honorary awards. Historian Josephus wrote that Alexander the Great sent golden buttons to High Priest Jonathan, who once led the Hebrews in his aid. There is also information about Roman emperors giving military awards and political gifts of medals or medallions that were large silver or gold large coins worn by men and women.
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Roman Origins
The Roman army ran one of the earliest systematic decoration schemes. Soldiers could be awarded phalerae — engraved metal discs worn on the chest harness — alongside torcs, armlets and crowns, each tied to a specific kind of distinction. The principle established then is the one still in use: a visible object, worn on the body, that identifies what someone did.
The Renaissance Portrait Medal
The medal as a deliberate art form appears in fifteenth-century Italy. Pisanello is generally credited with establishing the portrait medal, casting bronze pieces bearing a ruler's profile on one face and an allegorical design on the reverse. These were not awards. They were objects of prestige, commissioned and given, and they set the visual grammar — profile portrait, inscription around the rim, symbolic reverse — that award medals still borrow from.
Military Decorations Become Systematic
Through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, European states formalised what had been ad hoc. Campaign medals were issued to everyone who served in a given theatre; gallantry decorations were reserved for specific acts. The distinction between a medal for participation and a medal for distinction dates from this period, and it still shapes how sports and corporate awards are structured today.
Olympic Medals
The modern Olympic medal has a less tidy history than most people assume. At the 1896 Athens Games, winners received a silver medal and an olive branch, with a bronze or copper medal for second place. The gold, silver and bronze hierarchy familiar today was standardised in the years that followed, and by the 1904 Games in St Louis the three-tier structure was in place.
The design has been reworked repeatedly since, with host cities given latitude on the reverse face, which is why Olympic medals from different Games are so visually distinct.
How Medals Are Made
Two processes dominate. Die-struck medals are stamped from a blank under enormous pressure using a hardened steel die, producing sharp relief and clean detail; this is the standard for championship and military work. Cast medals are poured into a mould, which suits sculptural, high-relief designs but gives softer edges.
After striking, the piece is plated — gold, silver, bronze, antique or bright — and may be enamelled. Diameter is the largest single driver of cost, ahead of finish, which is worth knowing if you are ordering for a whole field of athletes.
Why the Object Still Matters
A medal works because it is disproportionate to its cost. It is a small piece of struck metal, and it routinely outlasts the trophy, the certificate and the photograph. People keep them for decades, which is the entire point of making them well.
