Jacques Wiener

Jacques Wiener was the eldest of three brothers who were successful Jewish Flemish medalists and engravers. His innovation was the idea of precisely engraving the exterior and interior of a building on the two sides of a medal, an approach that he employed for notable Belgian churches as well as a series of forty-one medals depicting Europe’s most important buildings. Jewish subjects included the Opening of the Jewish Home for the Aged in The Hague (1841) and the Opening of the Synagogue in Cologne (1861). Wiener also engraved the first Belgian postage stamp, an image of King Leopold I that was the first stamp issued on the European continent.