The Battle of Dunbar was an emphatic victory for Cromwell and his forces against a Scottish army that supported Charles II’s attempt to win back his late fathers throne. Dunbar was followed a year later by similar success for Parliamentarians at the Battle of Worcester which ended the English Civil War.

Thomas Simon was the Chief Graver to the Mint during the Commonwealth. Simon was asked to go to Edinburgh not long after the Battle of Dunbar to capture Cromwell’s portrait and begin work on the medal, the hasty production of the medal suggests how important his medallic art was to the promotion of the Commonwealth.