(b 1743; d Camberwell, London, 1830). English medallist. His father, Thomas Pingo (1692–1776), was an Italian medallist and die engraver who settled in London in the 1740s, and his brother, John Pingo ( fl 1786–7), was also a medallist. Lewis Pingo’s earliest known medal, of Richard Mead (silver and bronze; see Hawkins, Franks and Grueber, ii, no. 388), dates from 1754. Between 1756 and 1764 he won many prizes from the Society of Arts, London, for drawings, medallions, ornamental designs and for his die and gem engraving. In 1776 he succeeded his father as Assistant Engraver at the Royal Mint, London; he became Chief Engraver there following the death of Richard Yeo (1779), retiring in 1815. His medal of the Siege of Gibraltar (gold, silver and bronze, 1782; see Brown, no. 248) is a fine example of the die engraver’s art. He was commissioned by the Royal Society to produce the Captain Cook medal in 1784; the gold example presented to Cook’s widow is now in the British Museum, London. He also executed a number of medallic portraits of George III (e.g. Brown, no. 265), and the King was also the subject of one of his many wax portraits (London, RA). Among the dies for coinage engraved by him are those for the spade guinea of 1787 and for the second issue of gold coins of George III.

• Pingo, Lewis
  • Milton, John