Noonans
Auction 145 13-14 Mar 2018
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British Educational Award Medals from the Collection Formed by the Late T.h. Watts
BRITISH HISTORICAL MEDALS, LONDON, Bishopsgate, J. Cutler's Academy, an engraved silver Prize Medal for Arithmetic by J. Jackson, legend, rev. legend (From Numbers' Aid and Art Never will Fame depart), named (G. Dudley, Christmas AD 1817), hallmarked London 1817, 45mm, 22.48g (Grimshaw p.28; D & W 241/292, this piece). Good very fine, rare; pierced for suspension £100-150
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The verse on the medal's reverse, 'From numbers' aid and art, never will fame depart', is a mnemonic for resolving the original 'Josephus problem', in which from a circle of 41 men every third man is killed. It was also used as a winning formula in backgammon where the black pieces represented the Turks and the white, Christians
BRITISH HISTORICAL MEDALS, LONDON, Bishopsgate, J. Cutler's Academy, an engraved silver Prize Medal for Arithmetic by J. Jackson, legend, rev. legend (From Numbers' Aid and Art Never will Fame depart), named (G. Dudley, Christmas AD 1817), hallmarked London 1817, 45mm, 22.48g (Grimshaw p.28; D & W 241/292, this piece). Good very fine, rare; pierced for suspension £100-150
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The verse on the medal's reverse, 'From numbers' aid and art, never will fame depart', is a mnemonic for resolving the original 'Josephus problem', in which from a circle of 41 men every third man is killed. It was also used as a winning formula in backgammon where the black pieces represented the Turks and the white, Christians