Porto Bello - No Portrait Vernon Medals

About This Coin

Omitting the bust portrait of Admiral Vernon that characterizes the most common medal type, the Porto Bello No Portrait Vernon Medals substitute alternative obverse designs — typically depicting ships, fortifications, or symbolic imagery — while retaining the Porto Bello commemorative inscriptions and the celebratory tone that defines the broader Vernon medal series. The absence of Vernon's portrait distinguishes these medals from the standard Portrait type and may reflect manufacturing decisions driven by die availability, cost considerations, or the preferences of specific manufacturers who chose to emphasize the naval action itself rather than the commander who achieved it. The reverse designs on No Portrait medals frequently depict the harbor of Porto Bello in considerable detail, showing the arrangement of Vernon's six warships relative to the Spanish fortifications, the Iron Castle (Castillo de San Felipe), and the other defensive positions that the British fleet had to overcome during the brief but decisive November 1739 engagement. These naval scenes provide valuable iconographic evidence for historians studying the tactical details of the battle, as the medal engravers — working from published accounts and possibly from sketches provided by participants — attempted to render the engagement with documentary accuracy. Struck in copper and brass by the same Birmingham and London manufacturers who produced the Portrait medals, the No Portrait varieties are generally scarcer than their portrait-bearing counterparts, as the portrait type appears to have been more commercially popular with the medal-buying public. The Adams-Chao reference catalog provides die numbers for No Portrait varieties, integrating them into the comprehensive classification system that organizes the hundreds of Vernon medal die combinations. Collectors pursue No Portrait medals for their distinctive visual character and for the variety they bring to a Vernon medal collection assembled alongside the more common Portrait types.