Aust. Historical Medals

Lot 1016    Session 4 (4:30pm Tuesday)    Aust. Historical Medals

Estimate $1,700
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $2,000

CESSATION OF TRANSPORTATION, 1853, set of two in bronze and white metal (58mm) by the Royal Mint, London (C.1853/2). In specially made fitted case, small verdigris mark at left edge on reverse of bronze medal, otherwise toned uncirculated. (2)

The Launceston Examiner, on Thursday 5 May 1853, page 4, reprinted a despatch dated 14 December 1852 from Sir William Pakington, the late Secretary of State for the Colonies to Sir William Denison, Lt-Governor of Van Diemen's Land, in relation to considerations being given to the cessation of transportation to Tasmania, which in part stated, 'From the terms of the speech delivered by her Majesty to Parliament at the opening of the present session, you will have learned that her Majesty's confidential servants had felt it their duty to advise that the attention of Parliament: should be called to the existing system of secondary punishment, with a view to the abolition, at no distant period, of transportation to Van Diemen's Land.

My object, in the present despatch, will be to convey to you the considerations which have weighed with her Majesty's government on this subject, and the views which they entertain on the proper course to be adopted for giving effect to their conclusions, should those conclusions meet with the approval of Parliament'.... Her Majesty then outlines the pros and cons of the system of transportation but concludes that it will in fact cease.

The despatch finishes as follows, 'I may state, in conclusion, that it is a source of much gratification to me to convey to you a decision so much in accordance with the strongly expressed wish of the colonists of Van Diemen's Land; and I trust that they may recognise in it the desire of the government of this country to consult their wishes, and to strengthen their loyalty to the crown, and attachment to the British Empire.'

In due course, the Cessation of Transportation was passed by British Parliament and the news conveyed to Tasmania on 10 August 1853. A medal to commemorate the event was produced by the Royal Mint in London and in 1855 a shipment of 9,000 white metal medals and 100 bronze medals was received. The white metal issues were primarily distributed to school children in Tasmania and the bronze were awarded for services rendered in the 'anti-transportation cause'.

In the South Australian Register, an Adelaide newspaper, on Wednesday 22 August 1855, page 3 it was reported that a 'medal to Commemorate the Cessation of Transportation, several of the medals which have been struck to commemorate the cessation of transportation to the colony of Van Diemen's Land, have been awarded by the Tasmanian Committees to persons in New South Wales who took an active part in the anti-transportation movement. Amongst others, Mr. Cowper, M..LC., President of the Anti-Transportation League, Mr. Parkes, M.L.C., and Mr. Gilbert Wright, have received the medal, which is of bronze, and is 2-1/4 inches in diameter.

On the obverse is the profile of Her Majesty, very neatly and firmly executed, and by no means an unfaithful likeness. The inscription on the obverse is simply 'Victoria Queen, MDCCCLIII.' The reverse has the Australasian Arms, with the supporters, the kangaroo and the emu, and bears the inscription, ' Cessation of Transportation, 1853 - Tasmania founded 1803.' The design of the medal is remarkably chaste and neat, and its appearance is at once simple and elegant. It is a tasteful memorial of the event it is designed to commemorate, and forms an appropriate recognition of the services of those who took a foremost part in the movement which resulted in the cessation of transportation to Van Diemen's Land, and thus gave the death-blow to the convict system in these colonies.'

It is significant that the reverse design of the medal, referred to above as the Australasian arms was the coat-of-arms adopted by Australia following federation.