http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medal A medal is usually a coin-like sculpted object of metal or other material that has been engraved with an insignia, portrait or other artistic rendering. A medal may be awarded to a person or organization as a form of recognition for athletic, military, scientific, academic or some other kind of achievement. Medals may also be created to commemorate individuals or events or even as works of artistic expression in their own right. There are also devotional medals, which may be worn as a matter of religious faith. Medals are popular collectable items either as a form of exonumia or “paranumismatica”, or of militaria phaleristics.

The most common form of medal is round and made of bronze, but they may be produced in any shape desired and formed of any material that is suitable for sculpting, molding, casting, striking or stamping. A medallion is a large medal which may be commemorative or produced as a work of art or souvenir, and occasionally referred to as a “table medal”; in colloquial use, the term medallion is sometimes used to refer to ornamental jewelry worn as a pendant as part of a necklace. Art medals can also be produced in a parallelogram shape as a plaquette or larger plaque (the latter term also having non-medallic applications).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal In chemistry, a metal (Greek: Metallo, Μέταλλο) is defined as an element that readily loses electrons to form positive ions (cations) and forms metallic bonds between other metal atoms[1] (forming ionic bonds with non-metals).

Metals are sometimes described as a lattice of positive ions surrounded by a cloud of delocalized electrons. They are one of the three groups of elements as distinguished by their ionization and bonding properties, along with the metalloids and nonmetals. On the periodic table, a diagonal line drawn from boron (B) to polonium (Po) separates the metals from the nonmetals. Most elements on this line are metalloids, sometimes called semi-metals; elements to the lower left are metals; elements to the upper right are nonmetals (see the periodic table showing the metals).

An alternative definition[citation needed][unreliable source?] of metals is that they have overlapping conduction bands and valence bands in their electronic structure. This definition opens up the category for metallic polymers and other organic metals, which have been made by researchers and employed in high-tech devices. These synthetic materials often have the characteristic silvery-grey reflectiveness (luster) of elemental metals.