Bronzed galvano medal depicting Charles in 1953 sold by Daniel Fearon for less than £1000, together with a medal of The Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Margaret.
The medal of Charles was intended to be a speculative issue by Messrs John Pinches at the time of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953. The company used several portraits of the queen on the various medals it had been commissioned to strike but, it would seem, there was little commercial interest in a medal of Prince Charles.
The child portrait is not signed but Fearon believes it almost certainly to be the work of Leslie Ernest Pinches (1903-80). While no actual medals were struck, a couple of trial pieces came on the market in 1987-88, when the Pinches Archive was sold in two auctions at Glendining & Co.
The price paid by the British Museum for the three medals was under £1000.
