The Waterloo Medal — The Great Engravers

The Medal That Was Never Struck

The Waterloo Medal is numismatic tragedy and triumph combined. Commissioned in 1819 on the instructions of the Prince Regent to commemorate the Allied victory over Napoleon, Pistrucci worked on this medallic masterpiece for thirty years. He died in 1855 never seeing it struck — the massive 5.3-inch (135mm) dies were beyond the striking technology of his era.

The dies survive in the Royal Mint Museum as testament to Pistrucci's obsessive perfectionism. One side features portrait cameos of the four allied sovereigns — George III of England, Francis II of Austria, Alexander I of Russia, and Frederick William III of Prussia — surrounded by an elaborate classical allegory. The other shows the equestrian figures of Wellington and Blücher amid a composition representing the defeat of the French: Victory, the chariot, and the fallen arms of the vanquished.

Pistrucci's Obsession

Pistrucci spent three decades perfecting the dies, refusing to compromise his vision despite constant pressure from the Royal Mint to finish. His insistence on perfection meant the medal became his life's work — and his unfulfilled dream. The dies were so large and so detailed that 19th-century technology could not strike them at full size without cracking; only electrotypes and soft impressions were ever taken.

Reading the Allegory

The Allied Sovereigns

Four conjoined profile portraits in the antique cameo manner — the monarchs whose coalition defeated Napoleon — encircled by figures of classical mythology.

Wellington & Blücher

The two victorious commanders on horseback, meeting as they did near La Belle Alliance at the battle's end on 18 June 1815.

Victory & the Quadriga

Victory rides in a chariot drawn by four horses, the classical Roman image of triumph, while Jupiter presides — antiquity summoned to crown a modern battle.

Fallen Arms

Weapons and armor of the defeated lie beneath the composition — the conventional classical shorthand for an enemy's total ruin.

The 2024–2025 Dual Release

The Great Engravers series made history by finally striking Pistrucci's Waterloo Medal designs as coins — 209 years after the commission. The Allied Leaders release (June 2024) and the Victory release (January 2025) mark the first time these designs have been produced in the medium Pistrucci intended.

Modern striking technology can now achieve what Victorian machinery could not. The 2024–2025 strikes reveal every minute detail Pistrucci engraved into those massive dies: individual facial features in the portrait cameos, the intricate harness work on the chariot horses, the classical drapery, the fallen weapons. This is Pistrucci's ultimate vision finally realized.

The dual release allows collectors to own both sides of this historic medal as separate display pieces. Together, they represent the complete medallion Pistrucci envisioned but never saw — a monument to artistic perfectionism and technical ambition that outpaced its era.