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WWI Award Medal

Started by Henk, August 08, 2020, 08:11:10 PM

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Henk

A WWI award metdal issued by a municipality in France or perhaps Belgium

Round, Silver with a nice loop, 28 mm. Edge stamped A

O: Arms in laurel wreath
R: SOLDAT | DE LA | GRANDE GUERRE | 1914-1918

Where was this medal issued, I could not identify the arms.

Fred

Interesting coat of arms, top left a mountain. Top right a saint so I would guess a place name like Mount St. What his name. Not sure what kind of tree is on the lower left but the gear wheel must mean industry of some sort.  The coat of arms looks too modern for WWI so may be this is  an anniversary issue like 50th or 75th?
Anything just made for collectors just isn't worth collecting.

Figleaf

As the text is in French, the medal is likely French or Belgian, possibly Canadian.

I went through a very large collection of French city arms and did not even find a remote likeness of one element. That discouraged me from going through Belgian arms. It may be a family coat of arms, but the heraldry looks too natural and not symbolic enough. At the moment, my favourite theory is a religious institution.

Of course, people knew that the war ended in 1918 only when it had in fact ended, so this wasn't made during the war. A commemoration is a possibility. Religious institutions often felt responsible for consoling families who had lost members.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

Henk

Thanks for your efforts and suggestions.
I agree the arms do not look "right"

I did an extensive search on google but did not find anything relevant.

I checked the Frankenhuis collection and also Lefebure (La frappe en Belgique occupe), no luck

eurocoin

#4
It is the coat of arms of the Belgian municipality of Court-Saint-Étienne.


Figleaf

An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

Henk

Excellent!  Thank you Eurocoin!

The village of Court-Saint-Etienne had 4373 inhabitants in 1910 and 4265 in 1920 (Wikipedia) so it is quite small. I assume these medals were given to surviving soldiers or perhaps also to parents or spouses of soldiers killed. I think not more than about a hundred will have been issued.

I checked the site of the Belgian State Archives where an extensive collections of WW1 medals is held. more than 600 pieces. This is the former collection of Lefebure, the author of the standard reference on Belgian WW1 medal. The Court-Saint-Etienne medal is not present in this collection.

Henk

I have to correct my previous post. Using the place of issue as a keyword I searched the Lefebure Catalog anew. And I got a hit, see picure below. A medal  nearly identical to mine is listed and illustrated, number 2961. However the medal listed has the name of the community above the arms (lacking on my piece) and also it is made of copper as mine is silver. Probably the A stamped on the edge stands for Argent (= silver). Also some fyrther information is given. The medal was made or issued in april 1920 and the manufacturer was the firm of Fonson Freres