German Calendar Disc - Perpetual Calendar
notes: label: Description
content: This calendar medal, inscribed in German, consists of two metal discs with cutaway sections that reveal scales on central disc between them. The three discs are riveted together at the center. A decorative piece with a loop is attached to the top of the middle disc. One side has a listing of the days of the week – SONNTAG, MONTAG, DIENSTAG, MITWOCH, DONNERSTAG, FREITAG, and SAMSTAG. A cutaway along the edge next to these names reveals seven consecutive numbers on a scale on the middle disc that runs from 1 to 31 – hence the dates corresponding to the weekdays.
label: Description
content: The other side of the middle disc has four concentric scales, each is divided into twelve parts. The outermost section shows an abbreviation for the name of the months of the year. Below this is a number indicating the number of days in the month for that month. The only possible number of days given for February is 28. These two scales are visible in one cutaway, as is a scale within this indicating the length of the day (marked DER TAG) and an innermost scale indicting the time of sunrise (marked AFG). Opposite this cutaway is a smaller one revealing the length of the night (marked DIE NACHT) and the time of sunset (marked UTG). A larger mark on this side reads: KALENDER EWIGER. The object is unsigned and undated.
label: Description
content: Compare MA.316925 and MA.316924. Also compare to numbers 99 and 100 in Ackermann’s catalog of calendar medals in the British Museum. She tentatively dates those calendar medals to the late seventeenth century.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: Silke Ackermann, “Maths and Memory: Calendar Medals in the British Museum Part II,” <I>The Medal</I>, Spring, 2005, vol. 46, esp. pp. 10-11. Object 99 in Ackermann’s catalog number 1958,1006.2453 in the collections of the British Museum. Object 100 has catalog number 1888,1201.332 at the British Museum.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Calendar
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1979.0038.02
label: catalog number
content: 1979.0038.02
label: accession number
content: 1979.0038
objectType: label: Object Name
content: calendar medal
label: Object Name
content: calendar token
label: Object Name
content: calendar coin
label: Object Name
content: calendar disc
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: .2 cm x 3.2 cm x 3.2 cm; 3/32 in x 1 1/4 in x 1 1/4 in