Sweden
Obverse: Bust slightly to the left, SIGISMUND • / R • S – 1592–1599, Obverse: Document, 1593 – UPPSALA MÖTES – BESLUT, Edge: Stamped SPORRONG and 0485 • 2000
bronze, 40.0 mm, 43.37 g.
Axel Gereon Wallenberg, born May 22, 1898, in Nässjö, and died January 14, 1996, in Danderyd, was a Swedish sculptor, medalist, and draftsman. He created commemorative medals and coins, including those marking the Swedish rescue expedition to Spitsbergen in 1928, the Stockholm Exhibition in 1930 and the 500th anniversary of the Riksdag in 1935, as well as medals commemorating Milles’s 70th birthday and Gustav V’s 90th birthday. One of Wallenberg’s last commissions was a commemorative medal marking the 200th anniversary of friendship between Sweden and the United States in 1976, as well as several royal art medals in 1978, including the one described here.
A royal medal from the series “Sweden and Its Rulers Over 1,000 Years,” designed by Axel Wallenberg. The obverse depicts the Swedish (during the period 1592–1599) King Sigismund, the then-Catholic ruler of the short-lived Polish-Swedish Union, who was deposed in 1599 by his Protestant brother John, King Charles IX of Sweden. The dynasty then split into a Protestant Swedish branch and a Catholic Polish-Lithuanian branch, which fought for the crowns in subsequent wars. From 1587 to 1623, Sigismund II Vasa was King of Poland. The reverse depicts the decree of the Uppsala Assembly of 1593, which definitively adopted the Evangelical-Lutheran doctrine as Sweden’s sole officially recognized state religion. Among the numerous signatories is the signature of Prince Karl “Carolus” (Prince Karl of Södermanland, later King Karl IX). The medal has historical ties to Poland and the Polish king.
