- Honorific and commemorative medallions of historical events and persons, issued by public and private agencies
- medals – orders of excellence – military medallions
These are of exceptional importance, as they are complete sets of the honorific decorations of historical personages.
The first category includes medallions-testimonies of diverse events and the activity of agencies inside and outside Greece. Many of these are works by gifted engravers and casters of medallions, from Pisanello (15th c.) to the present, such as W. Wyon, K. Lange, F, Neuss, X. Brayat, Irene Chariati. In the Collection’s possession are: the unique set of Septinsular medallions (gift of Pavlos Lambros), which bear witness to the turbulent history of the Ionian Islands, the commemorative set of twelve medallions by Konrad Lange on the subject of the Greek War of Independence,which circulated in 1839,and the commemorative medallion of Tanzimat, the democratic reforms in the Ottoman Empire in the reign of Sultan Abdul Meçid I (1850). The earliest work in the Collection is the Renaissance medallion with the effigy of John VIII Palaiologos, commemorating his participation in the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438-39), where the issue of the Unification of the Churches was discussed. It is a cast bronze masterpiece of Pisanello (1395-1455), great painter and father of the art of the medallion.
