A la Aplicación y al Saber Medal

This school medal rewarded diligence and learning, a legend proper to the academic recognitions granted in 19th-century Mexico. Colleges and institutions gave it to their most outstanding students as a distinction for effort and achievement.

These prizes were part of an educational culture that greatly valued the public recognition of merit. The medal was both incentive and keepsake, and many were struck in silver with allegories of study and wisdom.

Cataloged by Grove among the school pieces and worked in silver, this medal has no recorded year. Its value lies in the testimony of the educational practices of the era and in the symbolic language with which learning was celebrated.

School prize medal struck in silver that rewarded the effort of outstanding students. The legend on one face dates it clearly: "La Asamblea Municipal de Guadalupe, 1878." It is a nineteenth-century commemorative piece, not legal tender, within the family of scholastic merit medals so common in the Mexico of that era.

What it shows

The main face carries around the border the legend "A LA APLICACIÓN Y AL ESTUDIO." At the center appears a scroll with the word "PREMIO," a globe marked "AMÉRICA" resting on an open book, and a small laurel wreath at the bottom. The other face gathers, within a full laurel wreath, the inscription "LA ASAMBLEA MUNICIPAL DE GUADALUPE 1878."

Context

School prize medals like this were given to the most diligent students and were funded by municipal authorities or educational institutions. The scroll, the book, and the globe are classic symbols of knowledge; the laurel wreath, of recognition. Its silver make places it among the more carefully executed prize pieces of the late nineteenth century.

Value and collecting

Since it is not legal tender, its price does not depend on a denomination but on the metal, the state of preservation, and the historical interest of the piece. The wear of the relief and the crispness of the legends rule. If you want to appraise or sell it, check the store directory and compare real references; in the forum you can ask other collectors for opinions before closing a deal.