1895 bicycle road-race medal

[gben]

It was mixed in with a box-lot of old jewelry I recently purchased, it looks hand-engraved:

 

[corbettclassics]

Is the name inscribed on the back?

 

[scrubbinrims]

Love it!

 

[Jeff54]

It was mixed in with a box-lot of old jewelry I recently purchased, it looks hand-engraved:

Right you are, that's no pressed popper. It's completely hand etched and since this is older than Mexico's nickel silver 'artists' Unless, somebody had a craft's factory/shop pumping them out across the country, that's very likely, because it's top quality etching, hardly gets much better, even in pure silver pottery, dishes and cutlery, completely hand made by a silver smith. . Exquisive workmanship in the bottom flower, and delicate leaves surrounding it, each carved and kicked, nicely balanced dial and embellishment on top. Be very careful when handling this as your body oils can spoil it, It's a piece of very fine jewelry.

I can see for the tarnish on the bottom ribbon whoever won this, pretty much, only touched it on the bottom ribbons to keep from ruining the copper. Don't dare clean this, it's fantastically kept well preserved! Clean and kiss it bye, bye. Bah, bah, bye, bye!

 

[olderthandirt]

sweet medal ,i bet whoever won this cherished it

 

[gben]

There is no name on the medal anywhere. The only common metals that do not tarnish are gold and platinum. I see no varnish or clear-coat on it that would have prevented tarnishing. I am guessing it is probably some sort of silver that has been electroplated with gold to prevent tarnishing except where it may have worn through. Engraving of this type was done with hand-held steel cutting tools, it is a craft which died out not too long after WWII when machinery started to take over the job. "Etching" looks much different and is a chemical process done with acids that eat a design into metal. I had schooling in jewelry making, and used to be apprenticed to an old-time jeweler/watchmaker so I learned a bit about the subject.

 

[Jeff54]

Engraving, I didn't actually mean etching in the acid etch sense but, moreover, engraving is the right word. And it's copper, not gold nor silver. . Raw copper will keep its brilliance as long as it's not touched with body oils from handling, and stored in a dry place. The toning on the uncarved surfaces is probably from the owner rubbing it with a cloth 100 years ago. Or just toned naturally when it was formed into a sheet before being cut into the award, perhaps some oil was applied then and it took some year to tone it. . . In further review of you photos; Pink, that's the tone you get once somebody cleaned it with a light chemical. I suspect it had gotten some toning but tooth brush and light cleaner was used on it. It wouldn't have cleaned the darker toned areas B/C they prob got a bit of oil on them, but brought back luster in areas that were never touched. Otherwise the tone should be brilliant red. the chain's color ought to be red toned verses pink too.

I too, had jewelry class in collage, and collected pennies as a kid, still have most too. You might discuss preservation with a coin collector 'penny' expert as, if this has been cleaned, for the pink tone, "If" then, you'd want to be doing something to stop it from tarnishing again. I lightly cleaned otherwise 1960's mint pennies that I'd improperly stored back in late 70's, big mistake. Not too big because 1960's pennies are still just crap, but, after a few years, the toning continued to go darker, and it sucked. Once cleaned, the microscopic surface of copper is etched, it'll cause it to tarnish more rapidly, er somtin like that.