Collection Highlights: Heberden Coin Room

This medal was produced as a diplomatic message from Bertoldo's patron, Lorenzo de' Medici, to the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II. The reverse commemorates Mehmed's victories over the three kingdoms of Greece, Trebizond and Asia, drawing its iconographic inspiration from a number of Roman imperial coins. The medal thus crosses cultures from west to east, and crosses time from the Renaissance back to Rome.