medal
- Museum number
- M.7968
- Description
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Silver medal. (whole)
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A Highlander in scale armour, sword in hand, shield decorated with a unicorn, advances towards the storming of a fort which is seen in the background. Above is an inscribed riband issuing from a compass. (obverse)
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Armorial shield of the African and Indian Company of Scotland, with helmet, crest, and supporters. Above is an inscribed riband. (reverse)
- Production date
- 1700
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 56.000 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Medallic Illustrations 2, published in 1885, states:
Extremely rare.
A project for establishing a colony in the Isthmus of Darien was enthusiastically embraced in Scotland, and two successive parties, of about 1,200 persons each, proceeded to the proposed settlement. Famine and disease had diminished their numbers and destroyed their spirits, when Captain Campbell arrived with a party from his own estate, whom he had commanded in Flanders. Finding that 1,600 Spaniards were encamped at Toubucan, waiting the arrival of a squadron of eleven ships, when they intended to attack the new settlers, he determined to strike the first blow, and to take them by surprise. He advanced rapidly with 200 men, stormed their entrenchments, and drove them before him with great slaughter. The settlers, however, could not stand against the accumulated force of the Spaniards, and capitulated, after a stout resistance, upon highly honourable terms. When Captain Campbell returned to Scotland, the African Company of Scotland presented him with this medal in gold, and a grant was made to him of supporters to his arms, a Spaniard and an Indian, and an inescutcheon of the arms of the Company.
See Nisbet's System of Heraldry, I. Pl. 6, and p. 199; Numismatic Chronicle, The, and Journal of the Numismatic Society, London, N.S. XX. Pl. xii. 2.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated events
- Commemoration of: Storming of Toubucan
- Acquisition date
- 1874
- Department
- Coins and Medals
- Registration number
- M.7968
- C&M catalogue number
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MB2 (Medallic Illustrations 2) (209) (529)
