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Great Britain - 1794

The Honourable Thomas Erskine and Vicary Gibbs

Obverse:

Conjoined bare heads of Thomas Erskine and Vicary Gibbs right.

Legend:

HON. T. ERSKINE . V . GIBBS . ESQ.

Exergue:

PATRIOTS WHO FOR SACRED FREEDOM STOOD.

Size:

44 mm.

Reverse:

Justice supporting swooning figure of Liberty, the British lion to left. RETURNING JUSTICE LIFTS ALOFT HER SCALE.

Exergue:

MDCCXCIV

BHM:

AR, AE 44 by J. Milton.
AR RRR; AE N.
E.P.M. 1891/79.
AM; BM.

Sir Vicary Gibbs (1751-1820), was educated at Eton and Kings College Cambridge. He became a barrister at Lincoln's Inn in 1783 and was recorder of Bristol in 1794. He was knighted in 1805 and became MP for Great Bedwyn in 1807. In that same year he was appointed Attorney General, later becoming a privy counsellor. He was frequently known as 'Vinegar' Gibbs for particularly sour rhetoric. See also note to No. 375.

from British Historical Medals, Volume I, p. 88

The Honourable Thomas Erskine and Vicary Gibbs