Calendar medals first appeared, in several countries of mainland Europe, during the 17th century.  At their simplest, they told you the day of the week on which the Sundays occurred, or perhaps when the first of each month occurred, plus the number of days in those months.  Many of them were much more elaborate, attempting to list a variety of astronomical phenomena, of which the lunar phases and sunset times rank amongst the more obvious.  The amount of data to be accommodated is considerable, in consequence of which the lettering is often very small and the pieces themselves decidedly large; 42-44 mm diameter is not uncommon, and anything up to 60mm possible.  Most are in the range 37-44mm.

Most early pieces made use of the fact that, since there are seven days in the week and a leap year every four years, the pattern of days on which Sunday falls repeats every 28 years; thus, if you knew where in the cycle the current year was, and that was all you wanted to know, one piece would suffice for a long time.  Others made lists of years for as many years as could be fitted on the piece.  There were many experiments as to how to make the best use of the space available, and considerable variety of design in consequence.  The lack of a leap day in Gregorian year 1700, however, disturbed the pattern; in addition to which, pieces for individual years started appearing intermittently from the 1680s.  Some of those by the British manufacturer, W. Foster, are amongst the first.
 

In the closing years of the 17th century, also, references to the ecclesiastical calendar start to appear; initially the date of Easter, from which all other days can be derived, but later some other feasts as well.  The earliest ecclesiastical pieces coincide with the last of the datelist multi-year pieces, and on some of these lists of Easters appear; months "1" and "2" on the entries indicating March and April respectively, a reminder of the fact that, in some European countries at least, the Gregorian calendar was not introduced until 1752.

After 1700, new continental issues seem to have ceased for many years.  Even in England, Foster {1684-87} was not followed until 1716 by Andrew Buckley, and then only for four years.  After further spasmodic and little known issues in occasional years during the 1720s and 1730s by Cole and Weet, we arrive at 1742; the year when a regular set of annual dated pieces with near-standard design commences, and continues for over nine decades until the 1830s.  A string of Birmingham manufacturers set the pace, and occasionally someone in France, Belgium or the USA would imitate, copying the British pattern, but none of them were of long duration.
 

After Turner {1742-45}, the three main issuers were John Powell {1746-82}; James Davies {1782-1801} and Peter Kempson {1796-1826}; there were others, but not of long standing.  The precise design varies in minor detail as the series progresses, but consists mainly of a date table in the centre of the obverse and a new/full moon table in the centre of the reverse, surrounded in the eight exergues thus formed by, depending on date, some combination of ecclesiastical data, law terms and {from c.1806-7} eclipse data.  The pieces are around 39mm and variously in copper, brass or {later} occasionally in white metal.
 

To those not interested in the fine detail the various years may be much of a muchness, but to those that are the data itself, and the way in which it is handled, is fascinating.  Right from the start Turner adopted a Jan-Dec approach, notwithstanding that for the first few years of issue the Julian calendar with its New Year's Day of 25 March was still in force.  The swapover year 1752 is obviously the year to have, unless you happen to be American, in which case certain years of the Civil War, 1774-1782, have particular appeal.

This apart, there are rare months in which there are no moons of a particular phase, or two; when a moon falls very close to a day or month end, and perhaps a rounding of the hour causes it to fall in the new day but at 0 o'clock, or it falls down the gap between two months and is forgotten; when there are too many eclipses for the space available; or the years when the king dies or the Prince of Wales is born around the time of manufacture of the following years' dies.  It is very interesting to see the varying ways in which the manufacturer handles these vagaries of statistics, and in which he responds to the demand for new types of data and the obsolescence of old.
 

Around 1822, whilst Kempson was still striking the main series, white metal pieces of radically different design started emanating from Birmingham; initially by William Turnpenney {1822-23}, and later by Thomas Halliday {from 1827}.  Turnpenney's pieces were rather larger than Kempson's, and despite not really having the space to do so Kempson felt obliged to respond by adding the extra two or three rather superfluous ecclesiastical features which Turnpenney had included on his.  After Kempson ceased, Thomas Wells Ingram continued the traditional style in brass until 1832.
 

Apart from the main British series of 1742-1834 there was no contiguous series of calendar medals of any length in any country, which poses the question as to whether they had any serious purpose, or whether they were just regarded as keepsakes and visiting cards given away to business contacts as "freebies".  Even in the main series there are a considerable number of inaccuracies in the data, particularly amongst the issues of Powell and Davies, which one would have thought them obliged to correct if their continuance in business relied on customers being able to depend on their information.
 

On the continent, things were quiet, a few imitations apart, until 1804, after which there are quite a few German and Austrian pieces up until the mid-1820s.  There is also a one-off French Revolutionary piece of L'an 5 {1796-97}.  The middle of the century brought another isolated spurt: white metal pieces by E. Moses in England {isolated years 1846-56} and, across the Atlantic, copper by J.B. Hyde of New York for several years from 1852.  The latter are unusual in that they deal with six months per side, with either obverse or reverse being changed every half-year.  They are concerned with the days of the week; neither preserves the other elements of the older data.

Apart from a one-off reinvention of Kempson's classical design fifty years on to accommodate an Austrian royal wedding in 1881, in which a picture of the couple displace the lunar information, things again go fairly quiet until 1895; whereafter, in celebration of aluminium's coming of age as a numismatic medium for advertising, a whole profusion of company-sponsored calendar medals appear and continue until WW1.  These are of two types: the single-year type {of which a particularly attractive example was made to commemorate the Brussels exhibition in 1897} and, from c.1904-5, a type which contained a revolving disk to relate months, weeks and years along the lines of the old 28-year cycle, thereby creating a piece which was valid until well into the mid-1920s.  Also, in 1895, there are some fine copper calendar medals, again issued for advertising purposes, by R.E. Daish.

In more recent times the Austrian mint has been striking attractive calendar pieces regularly from 1933, whilst there has also been some less pleasing commercial gimmickry, mainly from the US.

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Illustrations:

1. 1684 by Foster
2. A Perpetual Almanac by Foster
3. 1749 Sundays in Each Month by Powell
4. 1749 New and Full Moon by Powell
5. 1794 New and Full Moon by Davies with King and Queen's birthdays
6. Lunar Calendar by Kempson
7. 1828 Geo. IV by Halliday
8. 1828 a leap year by Halliday
9. French Calendrier
10. 1795 French Revolution Period
11. Rotating to cover 22 years in Aluminium

Useful References and Links:

Silke Ackermann:	"Calendar Medals in the British Museum" {articles in "The Medal", Autumn 2004 and Spring 2005}
Werner Strothotte:	"Die Zeit in der Numismatik" {excellently illustrated, so you don't have to worry about the language}

Also, Texan numismatist Dale Hallmark has an excellent website for Austrian material at http://www.austriancoins.com/MedalsCalendarI.html, whilst the editions of the American journal "The Numismatist" dated 1956-59 and 1971-74 contain many short articles amounting collectively to a lengthy catalogue.

David Powell
January 2007