Medals

Anonymous

1720

Courtesy of the

American Numismatic Society

John Law and his schemes were lampooned not only on paper but also in a series of satirical medals made mostly in France and Germany around the time of the bubbles.

Much like prints, medals of silver, copper, pewter, and lead were a popular and mobile art form in early modern Europe. While they mainly served to celebrate rulers and heroic actions, satirical medals inverted this function, transforming praise into ridicule. At first glance, the John Law medals (left) closely resemble official medals, often with a portrait of Law on the obverse, where a king’s face might traditionally appear. But upon closer inspection, we see the Scottish financier behaving badly: expelling paper shares from a giant bellows while bellowing out the phrase who buys shares? In another medal, he is smoking a pipe and defecating coins that grow wings and take flight. The reverse side of one silver medal narrates the vertiginous experience of buying shares on Monday, earning “millions” by Tuesday, spending it all like a lord, then losing everything by week’s end, and ending up hospitalized or in the insane asylum.