Young Blonde Girl Wearing Medallion Necklace In The Old House

History
The first known instance of a medal being awarded comes from the historian Josephus who, writing long after the event, accounts that in the fourth century BCE the High Priest Jonathan led the Hebrews in aid of Alexander the Great, and that in return for this, Alexander "sent to Jonathan... honorary awards, as a golden button, which it is custom to give the king's kinsmen." The Roman emperors used both military awards of medals, and political gifts of medallions that were like very large coins, usually in gold or silver, and die-struck like coins. Both these and actual gold coins were often set as pieces of jewellery, worn by both sexes.
The bracteate is a type of thin gold medal, usually plain on the reverse, found in Northern Europe from the so called "Dark Ages" or Migration Period. They often have suspension loops and were clearly intended to be worn on a chain as jewellery. They imitate, at a distance, Roman imperial coins and medallions, but have the heads of gods, animals, or other designs. The Liudhard medalet, produced around 600AD in Anglo-Saxon England, is an isolated example, known from a single copy, of a Christian medal, featuring an inscription naming Liudhard (or "Saint Letard"), the first priest among the Anglo-Saxons, and probably presented to converts. The surviving example is mounted for wearing as jewellery.
In Europe, from the late Middle Ages on became common for sovereigns, nobles and later intellectuals to commission medals to be given simply as gifts to their political allies to either maintain or gain support of an influential person. The medals made be made in a range of metals, such as gold, silver-gilt, silver, bronze and lead, depending on the status of the recipient. They were typically up to about three inches across, and usually featured the head of the donor on the obverse, surrounded by an inscription with their name and title, and their emblem on the reverse, with a learned motto inscribed round the edges. Such medals were not usually intended to be worn, although they might be set as pendants on a chain. From the 16th century medals were made, both by rulers for presentation and private enterprise for sale, to commemorate specific events, including military battles and victories, and from this grew the practice of awarding military medals specifically to combatants, though initially only a few of the officers.