Women on medals

In pre-modern society, women were featured distinctly less often on coins and medals than men, not least because women were regarded as not having full legal capacity and capable of rule. For this reason they appear only rarely in display, unless, for example, as the guardian of an underage son.

Like their male counterparts, women are often depicted according to an ideal image, for instance, as a goddess, in the shape of Eve or modelled after the Virgin Mary, as true icons of virtue.