What Is Medal or Medallion?
The medal is a small and portable artistic object. It is in the form of a thin disc and normally made up of different metals, mostly precious metals. It carries design in both facets. It has multiple purposes but used mostly for commemorative kinds of purposes and given as awards in Australia and around the globe.
It is a thin line between medals and medallion. In Australia and Europe, medallions have a larger size compared to medals, and it is more than three inches or 80mm in diameter. Big size of medallion allows crafting of fine details and resulting into the pleasant beauty that can retain for years.
Being too large to worn, medallions used to display on a wall, tabletop, desk, or cabinet.
Different Types of Medals
Experts divide medals in following types or classes:
- Awards – Grant to an individual or an organisation to recognise achievements in various areas such as sports, science, military, academy, culture, and so on.
- Commemoratives – Particularly designed to commemorate an individual, an event, or (Lifelong) work.
- Souvenirs–It is more focused on the place or event.
- Religious – It is for religious reasons.
- Portraits – To memorise a person in the form of a portrait.
- Artistic – It is a pure artistic object including Plaquettes (Circular medals).
- Society Medals– It is used as badge or token of membership.
How Are Medals Made?
- The medal designing begins with the idea that ultimately translating into sketches or images. Materials are used as a guide. Medal designers develop drawing of a medal based on the image of a graphics designer.
- Now, three dimension modal is produced by sculptor using clay and fine cutting grating tools. Afterwards, clay model casts into the plaster of Paris model. It directly contributes to die making process.
- Now, die making begins and follows several phases and resulting into hard and heat tolerance steel coining die that can work under strong pressure and high degrees of heat.
- If your medal has an abstracted shape or special shape, you need to go through steel cutting die to make procedure.
- To make die ready for minting, strips of metals cut in specified width, thickness, and curve. Now, strips cut into blanks and sometimes polished by rotating brush or tumbling.
- Minting press requires high pressure to make impressions on blanks as a negative motive of the die.
- After minting process, finishing goes as per the custom requirements like using gold, silver, and bronze plated. To give the antique appearance it demands chemical treatment for artificial oxidisation (if needed), sandblasting, and the surface is policing.
- Medals have front and back faces, and design differs accordingly. Front face used to have intensive design while back face retains secondary or minor design.
- Bronze is the most used material in medal preparation because it has stable prices, durability, and easy casting. Other metals used are alloys, brass, copper, aluminium, iron, zinc, lead, nickel, and pewter.
- Inexpensive materials like platinum, gold, silver, gemstones, ivory, and so on used in the Medal preparation as a coating or a big portion of it.
Medals to Australians in Wars
The military used to offer medals, service awards, and decorations. Unfortunately, we used military medals and these terms interchangeably, but those have distinct differences. For instance, decorations awarded for specific act or heroism in the war while service awards are for services with particular capacities in a specific geography and time frame.
The Australian military has a long history to win war medals and decorations. For example,
- Honours & Trophy awards - AWM
- London Gazette online (See also Commonwealth Government Gazette box on this page)
- Gallantry and distinguished service awards to the Australian Army during the First World War
- The Military Cross to Australians
- VCs of the First World War
- The Victoria Cross Roll of Honour
- Medals to the Royal Australian Navy during World War I
- Citations of the Distinguished Conduct Medal 1914-1920
Different Kinds of Medals, Awards, and Trophies Available in Australia
There are various medals and trophy designing and development companies working in across Australia. They have Omnichannel presence including online websites and mobile apps to sell a range of medals by accepting online or in-app orders and deliver excellent products at cost-effective price tags.
Those companies either work as B2B or B2C businesses and offer following titles for medals, awards and trophies.
- Award & Custom Medals
- Medallion Insert Discs
- Traditional Column Trophies
- Trophy Figures and Riser Tops
- Trophy Cups, Loving Cups and Trophy Sport Balls
- Resin Trophies and Cast Stone Trophies
- Recognition Award Plaques and Certificates
- Award Ribbons and Chains
- Award, Recognition and Service Lapel Pins
- Glass, Crystal and Acrylic Trophies
- Executive and Employee Awards, Gifts and Desk Accessories
- Prestige's Engraved Hollowware Awards and Trophies
Advantages of Custom Medals and Medallions
Customized medals and medallions have distinct advantages such as:
- It let your organisation and recipient standout from the rest of crowd during competitions, contests, and events.
- It boosts recognition of the name
- It adds feathers to professionalism.
- It delivers specific messages of organisation, brands, and events for which those are made.
- Those prove high perceived value for awards.
- It becomes a matter of pride for both ends, donors and recipients.
- It makes event or effort memorable for a lifetime.
- It gives your organisation an additional media exposure and opportunity to branding.
Conclusion
After getting enough details regarding medals and medallions, you might have tempted to leverage its benefits in favour or your organisation or brand in Australia and across the globe.
We are a leading medal and medallion as well as trophies, awards, and another similar products manufacturer in Australia working for long. We have experienced and expert medal, trophies, and award designers to deliver you customised medals according to your requirements, events, and purposes.
We have a range of satisfied clients across the nation and around the world who always love to call us whenever their needs arise. We provide highly cost-effective and contemporary medal design with quick turnarounds.
