Jacob Abraham (medalist)
German sculptor (1723–1800)
Jacob Abraham (Abram) (1723, Strelitz – 17 June 1800, Berlin) was a German Jewish medalist and lapidary.
He learned the art of engraving at the age of thirteen from a workman in the Polish town of Lissa. On the death of his father in 1731 the family moved to Schwerin (Sverin) and then to Mecklenburg. In 1750 he married Beilcheh Minden, the daughter of a teacher. His talents were recognised by Frederick the Great, who confirmed his appointment at the Berlin mint as a die cutter in 1752 after a two-year apprenticeship. The following year, at the age of 31, he was transferred to Stettin as Royal Medalist to inaugurate a new mint. He also engraved small coins and Polish money before moving to Königsberg in 1755.
Abraham fled before the Russian advance in the Seven Years' War to Danzig in 1758, Dresden in 1759 and Berlin in 1761. He worked at both the Neue Münze ("New Mint") and Berlin Alte Münze ("Old Mint"). In the last twenty years of his life his powers declined and much of his work was done collaboratively with his son Abraham Abramson.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Jacob Abraham (medalist)” is german sculptor (1723–1800). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Jacob, Abraham and medalist, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “german sculptor (1723–1800)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1678873. VIAF identifies the subject as 6183165110761236780008. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1723, 1800, 1731 and 1750.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Jacob Abraham (medalist)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Jacob Abraham (medalist) primary sources, Jacob Abraham (medalist) archive and Jacob research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Jacob Abraham (medalist)”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Jacob Abraham (medalist)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.