NNP

Premium.  An early award or prize medal (late 18th century), now somewhat obsolete. The word, first used in England in 1601, originally meant a reward or prize (before it took on monetary or insurance meanings). It was thought the British would have been the first to apply the term to prize medals, but the earliest known such medal is the Magellanic Award of the American Philosophical Society – named after Magellan the explorer and established in 1786 – it was originally called the Magellanic Premium.

Also medals established in both countries at the same time bear this out. Count von Rumford (an American-born scientist, Sir Benjamin Thompson, 1753-1814, a physicist who investigated heat and was knighted by George III) established in 1796 the Rumford Prize medal in England at the Royal Society of London and the Rumford Premium in America at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. (The British medal does not bear the word "premium," the American medal did until 1839 when it was engraved by Moritz Furst and struck at the U.S. Mint; its legend reads: Rumford Medal for Discoveries in Light or Heat; it is Julian AM-1.)

There is also the Scott Premium of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, established early 19th century but unused after mid-19th century (Julian AM-19, -20). Few medal programs survive from this period until today and none retain the term "premium" in their name, hence the present obscurity of the term.

References:                                                                                                                          

O37 {1977} Julian.

excerpted with permission from

An Encyclopedia of Coin and Medal Technology

For Artists, Makers, Collectors and Curators

COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY D. WAYNE JOHNSON

Roger W. Burdette, Editor