Definition

• Virole Brisée.  French for a segmented collar; the three or more sectioned collar that imparts raised relief lettering and/or ornamentation to the edge of a struck coin or medal. Credit for the successful development of the virole brisée collar goes to Jean-Pierre Droz (1746-1823) for use on the screw press at the Paris Mint in 1783 despite a primitive
  use of segmented collar as early there as 1550, (but this technology was lost when coining reverted to moneyers).
  Droz, a Swiss engraver who had great mechanical skill, was hired away from the Paris Mint by Matthew Boulton in 1789 to provide broad technical expertise for Boulton's new Soho Mint in Birmingham. Droz provided Boulton with this technology while he was there but returned to Paris, 1799, after which Boulton continued the use of the process. Boulton employed the virole brisée collar to create raised lettering on the edge of his famed Lord Nelson Battle of Trafalgar Medal, 1805.
  From this early beginning, the knowledge of the segmented collar spread to other mints and medal makers of the world. It still remains the principal method of creating raised edge lettering for medals to the present day. It's use is described and illustrated in the entry segmented collar.
  Reference:                                                                                                                                     
  C66 {1988} Cooper pp 170-73, illus.

  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

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