Op het wapenen der burgerkorpsen in Nederland 1784

This silver medal was created in 1784 by Johan George Holtzhey, commemorating the arming of citizen militias in the Netherlands. The medal’s small scale belies its weighty subject: the political empowerment of ordinary people. Silver, as a precious material, elevates this message, but the method of its production is equally important. Holtzhey was a master die cutter. Each medal would have begun as a precisely engraved steel die. This was then used to strike the image into the silver, cold-working the metal. The crisp lines and sharp relief you see are a testament to this process. Consider the imagery: citizens bearing the figure of Dutch liberty. It symbolizes the collective effort required to uphold their rights. The medal itself, produced through skilled labor, embodies this same principle. It reminds us that political ideals are forged through a process, much like the medal itself.