103050 | SWITZERLAND. Bern. Silver Academic Prize Medal or "Gärtnerpfennig."

103050  |  SWITZERLAND. Bern. Silver Academic Prize Medal or "Gärtnerpfennig" of 3 Francs. Issued circa 1855-1857 for outstanding pupils in the canton (31mm, 12h). By Nikolaus Lendi.

 

LABOR OMNIBUS IDEM (work is the same for all), bees in flight around a beehive set upon an elaborate bench; flowering shrubs to left and right; PRÆM DILIG (a prize for diligence) in exergue // RESPUBLICA BERNENSIS, crowned cantonal coat-of-arms of Bern within a laurel wreath.

 

SM 708; Meier & Häusler 167. NGC MS-65. Deeply toned, with tremendous brilliance and crispness. Fairly rare in this elevated and rather attractive state of preservation, and the finest of just three observed in the NGC census.

 

Quite popular in the canton of Bern during the 18th and early 19th centuries, the so-called “Gärtnerpfennigs,” or “gardener’s pennies,” were a special form of scholastic prize given to deserving students for their academic achievements. They would sometimes feature a kneeling gardener on one side (accounting for the name), as the gardener was considered an allegory of diligence. Here, however, the iconography of industriousness is represented by a beehive with numerous bees flying around.

 

Upload: 3 March 2025.