Watch List notes:

MODERN COINS
A SPECIAL COLLECTION OF DUTCH AND DUTCH RELATED MEDALS

The Dutch Republic. Medal (Silver, 73.6mm, 135.29 g 12), on the death of G. van der Lynden in 1677, by an unknown engraver with the signature RI, 1677. PROSPICE DVM PROSPERA (=while prosperous be prudent) Prudentia standing facing, but with her head to left, wearing long robes and with her breasts bare, holding, in her right hand, a mirror into which she gazes and, in her left, the handle of a sash attached to a bracelet around the right wrist of a female figure standing behind her. This female figure (Fortuna?) stands facing on a small globe; her feet are winged and she wears transparent patterned drappery covering her from the waist downwards; she has a curious headdress, a blindfold and her five breasts are bare; she holds a palm in her right hand and a cornucopiae in her left; behind Fortuna, flowering plants and a calm sea; behind Prudentia, a rough sea, a 'Viking' galley and a rocky coast assailed by lightning; at Prudentia's feet to left, ligate signtature RI (or RN?) on rock. Rev. Urn, inscribed .P.M. / GERARDI / VAN DER / LYNDEN / ?IC I?CLXXVII and encircled by the Ouroboros serpent, draped by a veil held by two winged putti; one, on the left, weeping and the other, on the right, wearing a garment covered in stars, holding two olive branches and clutching a column; on the right, fluted urn; on the left, altar; on the ground below, extinguished torches, a smoking lamp, a caduceus, a laureate skull, some bones, and a ribbon inscribed Ætat LXXIX; in the background, cypress trees. A.J. Bemolt van Lochum Slaterus, Nederlandse familienpenningen (Zutphen, 1981), 313. Teyler's Museum TMNK 00944a (same types, but cast in copper). Van Loon III, p. 257, 1 (obverse). A splendid, boldly struck medal, beautifully toned. Very minor edge bang on the reverse, otherwise, good extremely fine.

Ex Künker 233, 17 June 2013, 2443.
This medal is clearly a hybrid. It has an obverse that is extremely enigmatic, but is also known used with a reverse celebrating the Peace of Nijmegen. The reverse commemorates the death of a Dutch patrician from a well-known Nijmegen family. Its engraver has often been identified as Jean Roettiers (or Rottiers) but there is no evidence that any of that family of engravers used initials in this manner (IR for Jean Roettier is known, but RI certainly is not). In fact, this attribution seems based solely on a comment in Schulman 40 (February 1902, lot 1189) saying, without any evidence what-so-ever, "avec RI (Roettiers Jr) dans le champ". In fact, probably the one thing we can be sure about is that it was NOT made by any member of the Roettier family! There is also no mention of the signature RI in Forrer. Another example of this type also appeared recently (ACR 15, 2015, 904 = Gadoury 2014, 907), but once again no rational explanation for it was supplied. It should also be noted that while some commentators view the figure with the mirror on the obverse to be Vanitas, she appears, carrying the same mirror and clearly labeled as Prudentia, on Dishoecke's medal on Nijmegen (Van Loon III, p.233, i); so, Prudentia is certainly who she is.