Opening of the New Coal Exchange, 1849, a copper medal by B. Wyon for the Corporation of the City of London, medallion portraits of the Queen, Prince Albert, the Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal, rev. interior of the Coal Exchange, 89mm, flan thickness 10mm (W & E 581A.2; Taylor 161c; BHM 2357; E 1435). Extremely fine, the thick-flan variety rare; housed in fitted gilt-blocked case of issue £600-£800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Complete Collection of City of London Medals.

View
Collection

A Collection of City of London Medals, the Property of a Gentleman, DNW Auction 138, 12 December 2016, lot 2709

Arguably the finest City of London medal from an artistic standpoint. The New (Third) Coal Exchange was built on the corner of Lower Thames Street and St Mary-at-Hill and opened by Prince Albert on 30 October 1849. A four-storey building with a central 60 foot iron and glass rotunda, it preceded its more famous successor, the Great Exhibition building (Crystal Palace) by two years. In use for almost a century, it became redundant after the nationalisation of the coal industry in 1947 and was scheduled for demolition in the 1950s. Conservationists succeeded in having it listed as a Grade II building in 1958 but despite the protests of Nicholas Pevsner and John Betjeman among many others it was demolished in November 1962 as part of a ‘vital’ plan to widen Lower Thames Street. Its loss has been described as “one of the great conservationist horror stories”.