Definition

• Contorniate.  A medal with a V-shaped furrow around its edge. The term is derived from a thin bronze medallion so named and first used about the time of Constantine the Great, supposedly as a counter in a game like checkers. The furrow aids a human when picking up the piece by hand. A modern medal is trimmed on a lathe and the contorniate furrow is cut after the piece is turned off to the correct diameter; it is similar in manufacture to a concaved edge. A modern example of a contorniate edge is the 2-inch Weizmann Institute of Science Medal of 1959 (or its larger cast counterpart); it is unusual in that it also has a beveled edge (59-82).  See edge.

  excerpted with permission from

  An Encyclopedia of Coin and Medal Technology

  For Artists, Makers, Collectors and Curators

  COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY D. WAYNE JOHNSON

  Roger W. Burdette, Editor

Beziehungen