Hello John,
We have a drawer labelled "oddities" in the Manchester Museum petrology collection which has four coins pressed into lava, five pressed lava medallions and one lava plaque. They were recently used in an exhibition by Ilana Halperin who would well worth contacting as she has a particular interest in them... [log in to unmask]
The coins pressed into lava are all nineteenth century pieces from Vesuvius, they came from four different donors but there is little more information with them.
The lava plaque, accession number M03910, is a simple design and appears to be from the Vesuvius eruption of 1837.
There is a particularly nice lava medallion, M05094, from Vesuvius in 1845; two lava medallions (M08079 and M08080) from the Vesuvius eruption of 1871; one from 1893 (M01913); one from the 1944 eruption (M05093). Most of us seem to have a few medallions, it would be interesting to make a photographic record and compare them... a worthwhile research project perhaps?
David
Dr David Green
Mineralogy Curator
Manchester Museum
0161-275-2636
-----Original Message-----
From: The Geological Curator's Group mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jon Radley
Sent: 30 July 2009 10:28
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: stamped lava 'medallions'
Dear All,
I've received an enquiry concerning souvenir 'medallions' stamped out of
freshly erupted lava. We have a couple of these in the Warwickshire
collection, from 19th century eruptions of Vesuvius. I'd be grateful for
information on any relevant research, collections, or articles.
With thanks
Jon
Jon Radley
Keeper of Geology
Warwickshire Museum
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