The British Museum

This silvered and enamelled bronze medal was struck to commemorate the British Museum. It was commissioned by the British Museum to Felicity Powell and was struck by Thomas Fattorini Ltd. in Britain in 2011.

The ten animals depicted on the reverse represent the ten departments of the British Museum. The obverse shows a pair of open hands in the centre of the Great Court’s ceiling that covers the original library’s Reading room. The outer blue ring bears the text ‘The British Museum 1753 A World of Understanding’ referring to the Museum’s mission. Radiating around the field are ten animals, each symbolising one of the British Museum’s ten departments, namely Coins and Medals (an owl), Conservation and Scientific Research (a snake), Portable Antiquities and Treasure (a mole), Ancient Egypt and Sudan (a sphinx), Prints and Drawings (a rhinoceros), Prehistory and Europe (a deer), Asia (a monkey), Africa, Oceania and the Americas (a leopard), Middle East (a lion) and Greece and Rome (a horse).