101757 | GERMANY. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach bronze Medal.

101757  |  GERMANY. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach bronze Medal. Issued 1825. Commemorating the Jubilee of the Anthropologist's Doctorate (50mm, 81.00 g, 12h). By G. Loos and H. Gube in Berlin.

 

I FR BLUMENBACH NATO GOTHAE D 11 MAII 1752 DOCT CREATO GOTTINGAE D 19 SEPT 1775, bust left / NATURAE INTERPRETI OSSA LOQUI IUBENTI PHYSIOSOPHILI GERMANICI D 19 SEPT 1825, three human skulls, as classified by Blumenbach: Caucasian, Ethiopian, and Mongolian. Edge: Plain.

 

Storer 398; Brettauer 125. Choice Mint State. Highly glossy and brilliant brown surfaces, with just a hint of rub on the high points. Oddly, struck on a thicker, heavier planchet than is normally encountered for the type, roughly 20% heavier than most other bronze examples. An ever-interesting and haunting type.

 

Blumenbach was an anthropologist from the University of Göttingen and specialized in the study and classification of human skulls from around the world—later known as craniometry. At the time of his death, he owned 245 whole skulls and fragments, along with two mummies. The term ‘caucasian’ as a descriptor of race was also derived from him, as his influential use of it in 1795 quickly caught on in scientific circles. For more information on Blumenbach and a modern analysis of his career—as well as a reference to this medallic issue—visit Nell Irvin Painter’s “Why White People Are Called ‘Caucasian?’,” which can be found at glc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/events/race/Painter.pdf.

 

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