175th Anniversary Waterloo Commemorative Silver Medal. Marvelous Toning!

This silver medal was struck from reductions of the original dies designed by Benedetto Pistrucci. Pistrucci was commissioned by the Royal Mint in 1816 to produce designs for a medal to commemorate the efforts of the victorious Allied forces at the Battles of Les Quatre Bras and Waterloo. the dies were engraved at a diameter of 137mm and consisted of and inner and outer part. Although they took thirty years to complete, they were considered too large to be safely hardened for striking. The obverse of the medal is an allusion to the treaty of Peace which resulted from the Battle of Waterloo. the central portion of the design depicts the busts of the four allied sovereigns of the period; Prince Regent (later George IV), Francis II of Austria, Alexander I of Russia and Frederick William II of Prussia. A number of mythical figures, among them Apollo and Themis, appear around the circumference of the medal. The central group on the reverse consists of two classical equestrian figures who bear the features of the Duke of Wellington and Field Marshal Von Blücher, the Prussian leader. Between them appears the representation of a flying victory and, above, the imposing figure of Jupiter. A composition of many figures representing the Battle of the Giants forms a border around the inner part of the design. The nineteen figures, tumbling from their assault on heaven, represent the confusion of the defeated enemy and the nineteen years duration of the Napoleonic Wars.