GUATEMALA, Provisonal Advisory Junta. September 1821-January 1822. AR Medal (43mm, 43.42 g, 12h). Declaration of Independence. Nueva Guatemala mint. By José Casildo España. Dated 15 September 1821. + GUATEMALA LIBRE * INDEPENDIENTE *, youth kneeling left, engraving base of obelisk 15 DE/ SEPTI–/ EMBRE/ DE/ 1821/ GENERL/ GAINZA; to lower left, scroll and book; to right, row of columns engraved Mo, L, and V / + EL LIBRE OFRECE PAZ * PERO EL SIERVO JAMAS *, winged Genus right, holding olive branch and separating globes depicting the unclasped hands of the Old and New Worlds. Stickney M51; Prober, Guatemala 230; Fonrobert 7206. Toned, lightly polished, hairlines, edge bumps. Near EF. Rare. Only 100 examples struck in silver.
From the Drewry Family Collection. Ex NASCA 58 (10 December 1985), lot 5893.
On the 15th of September 1821, in response to events in Mexico, a group of Guatemalan representatives met in Nueva Guatemala. Led by the governor general, Gambino Gainza, the representatives quickly agreed to follow the path of independence and, that same day, the Captaincy General of Guatemala issued a manifesto declaring their independence from the Spanish crown. A second manifesto was published the following day, organizing a Provisional Advisory Junta to govern until elections could be held.
Among the articles of the second manifesto was one ordering the creation of this medal to commemorate the province’s new independence. Proclamation medals had long been struck in Spanish territories to announce the coronation of a new monarch. This medal represents the earliest continuation of the practice into the republican period. As one of the first republican proclamation medals, the engraver was forced to quickly develop a new iconographic vocabulary. On the obverse, España depicts a youthful figure engraving an obelisk, emblematic of the work needed to establish a new government, while in the background march a row of other obelisks representing the other Spanish possessions. The reverse is even more dramatic. The engraver shows the twin globes of the new and old worlds, long a common symbol of the Spanish empire, but here being physically pulled apart. On each globe is a now-unclasped hand, with the two worlds still reaching out towards one another.
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