Diameter: 47mm (1.8in)
Silver. Polished fields and overall proof-like finish. Obverse: - Peace standing on a rock with an olive branch bearing a shield with Nelson's portrait, overall the legend ‘REAR ADMIRAL LORD NELSON OF THE NILE’. Reverse: - A view of the opening stages of the Battle, under by the legend ‘ALMIGHTY GOD HAS BLESSED HIS MAJESTY’S ARMS’. Contained within glass lunettes and a gold frame engraved ‘A Tribute of Regard from Alexr. Davison Esqr. St James’s Square’, fitted with integral loop for suspension, and complete in its original circular silk lined morocco case.
The present specimen medal is perhaps one of the batch of gold and silver examples sent directly to Nelson in Sicily by his prize agent and sponsor of the Nile medal, Alexander Davison (1750-1829). ‘Nelson’s Purse’ (Downer, M, 2004), refers: -
‘Davison was hoping to present Nelson with his medal in person. So he was 'truly mortified' to learn, on 6 April, that Nelson was marooned at Palermo, having committed himself to restoring Ferdinand to his throne. An alternative plan was hurriedly put into action. A box of the medals, '15 Inches long, 11 Inches wide and 1½ Inches Deep', was despatched to Portsmouth after a tip-off from Evan Nepean that Queen Charlotte was about to sail for the Mediterranean. Admiral Sir Peter Parker, the shore-based commander-in-chief at Portsmouth and an old friend of Nelson's from the West Indies, ensured that the medals safely reached the ship before she sailed. In return for this help (and, no doubt, because he was the deputy grand master of the freemasons in England), Sir Peter Parker received a silver medal.’
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‘The box held twenty-two medals. Eleven of them were gold: two for Nelson and nine for the Egyptian Club captains remaining in the Mediterranean. John Campbell, Nelson's former secretary in Vanguard and a partner in the prize business, was recruited to distribute the gold medals from Gibraltar. The other eleven medals were in silver, including one for Campbell himself and ten for Nelson, 'to be given to whom you please'. Each of the medals was cased in its own red morocco box and arrived with a short printed testimonial from Davison. Nelson was delighted when the medals eventually reached him in August. Like his wife he thought them 'elegant', thanking Davison on behalf of the 'brethren of the Nile’.’
The specimen medals together with the medal run for issuance to the fleet were made at Matthew Boulton’s Soho Mint, Birmingham, to dies by C.H. Kuchler. It was the first medal to be awarded to every participant in a naval action. Twenty-five gold medals were struck for Nelson and his Captains (and selected heads of state as nominated by the Government), 150 silver for Officers, 500 copper gilt for Petty Officers and 6,000 in plain bronze for ratings.