text: Rainer Albert

 

Carsten Theumer and the evils of money
Medal for the 12th German Coin Collector’s Conference in Speyer in 2015

From the 25th to the 27th of September 2015, the 12th German Coin Collector’s Conference – which will also be the 50th South German Coin Collector’s Conference – will take place in Speyer. A medal is traditionally issued to commemorate these conferences, and so the host, Speyer Numismatic Society (“Numismatische Gesellschaft Speyer”), has commissioned medallist Carsten Theumer from Halle to create a medal. Under the motto of the conference, Evil Money, Bad Money, Counterfeit Money (“Böses Geld, schlechtes Geld, falsches Geld”), Theumer has made one of his stunning cast medals (99 x 90 mm):

On the front, Theumer has managed to use a tremendous amount of writing as a design element, resulting in the viewer first perceiving the inscription as decorative and the image elements as emphasis before taking in the information the words contain. At the centre of this side of the medal, Theumer has placed the Imperial Cathedral of Speyer (“Kaiserdom zu Speyer”), which also happens to be the city’s coat of arms and therefore represents the event location. The placement of the image of the cathedral is reminiscent of a seal; on top of it sits an owl, one of the most well-known coin designs since the Attic tetradrachmes and today often considered a symbol of numismatics. Above the owl, we find the year of the conference and the medal: 2015. The large Gothic S below the seal – and opposite the owl, so to speak – is the design used on the Speyer Heller coin, the other side of which in turn depicts the cathedral. These 14th century coins are a symbol of the proud self-assertion of the Free and Imperial City of Speyer. In contrast, the eagles – symbols of sovereignty on German coins – create a sense of tension in the design on this side of the medal. Seemingly from the underground, they hint at the larger subject of the conference, which focuses on the many facets of money. However, the artist consciously made the small owl far more vibrant than the stylised and cropped eagles, thus putting greater emphasis on this bird. The inscription is split into two segments. On the left, we find the occasion the medal commemorates: the 12th GERMAN / 50th SOUTH GERMAN / COIN COLLECTOR’S / CONFERENCE; to the right we have the host and commissioner: SPEYER / NUMISMATIC / SOCIETY / 1956-2015 (the 50th South German Coin Collector’s Conference thus coincides with the Speyer Numismatic Society’s 50th anniversary).
The back of the medal bears no inscription; this alone creates tension and a strong contrast to the front. It has been divided into three image fragments; each one tells a story, illustrating the three different traits of money that form the theme of the conference: evil, counterfeit and bad money.
Theumer associates “evil money” with dark and anonymous dealings that few win and many, often, lose: arms deals, drug deals and money laundering of any kind. The handing over of briefcases full of cash has become a symbol of such transactions.
In the “counterfeit money” segment, an obviously “small-time con man” bites a five euro coin to check its authenticity. Pure gold and silver are soft; alloys thereof are always hard. The method is proverbial yet outdated: we would find one of today’s special edition euro coins just as hard to bite into as some of the government’s money manipulating methods are to swallow.
When it comes to “bad money”, Theumer does not employ a sluggish, well-filled piggy bank, instead opting for a galloping wild boar with a tie. This is in reference to the banking profession, the public image of which has suffered greatly in the last years due to money-grubbing and criminal activities. Theumer’s message seems to be that today, opening a savings account is no longer advisable, as the “big bucks” will only turn to pennies over time.
On the right edge, Theumer has signed his outstanding medal with a T.