- Awards: awarded to a person or organization as a form of recognition for sporting, military, scientific, cultural, academic, or various other achievements. Military awards and decorations are more precise terms for certain types of state decoration. Military decorations are often in shapes such as crosses or stars, but are still loosely called “medals”, as in the star-shaped American Medal of Honor.
- Commemoratives: created for sale to commemorate particular individuals or events, or as works of medallic art in their own right.
- Souvenirs: similar to a commemorative, but more focused on a place or event like state fairs, expositions, museums, historic sites, etc., and frequently found for sale within their respective souvenir shops.
- Religious: devotional medals may be worn for religious reasons.
- Portraits: produced to immortalize a person with their portrait; European portrait medallions sometimes bear the Latin word aetatis (“of his age”) to describe the depicted person’s age at the time of the portrait.
- Artistic: made purely as an art object. Plaquettes are often of this type.
- Society Medals: made for societies used as a badge or token of membership.
