From the beginning of his reign, Poniatowski attached great importance to minting and medal-making. He made the decision to start issuing thalers with an outright medal representation - a bust in armor. He hired a court-appointed, eminent medalist who took care of the artistic aspect of these issues. Throughout his reign, he commissioned the minting of numerous medals - commemorating important events and figures of his era. But while we have plenty of Polish medal issues of this king, there are few medals commemorating Poniatowski abroad.
One such very rare medal is this one. Minted to commemorate the adoption of the May 3 Constitution in 1791, in Amsterdam, made by medalist Johann Goerg Holtzhey (signed on both sides).
It's a medal with rich symbolism: from the inclusion of "father of the fatherland" (PATRIAE PARENS) in the king's titulary, to the monogram of Christ over the shield of arms, the broken shackles, the cracked yoke, to the inscriptions of the reverse translated as "free fear," "by the glorious decree of the Diet on May 3, 1791."
