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    Médaille d'honneur Actes de Courage et de Dévouement


    TacHel

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    Hi,

    I have a Barre designed obverse medal with 1856 on the reverse and a Caqué designed obverse medal with 1858 on its reverse. First one is an Interior Ministry award, second a Navy Ministry one. Should we, therefore, assume the change was made between 1858 and 1866 ?

    Regards,

    Hendrik

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    Next time I get a chance I will check if I can get a definitive date, certainly with the coinage the bust changed from a bare-headed bust to a laureate bust in 1861. I would imagine the change would be around that time.

    Paul

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    Since 1810 or about, the Ministry of Interior (Home Office) awards life-saving medals. In 1827, the Admiralty (Ministere de la Marine) was made responsible for all acts of gallantry and humanitiy at sea, with its own life-saving medals. This explains the differences between the two Napoleon III medals shown by Hendrik, the smaller being iNTERIOR and the other MARINE;

    Each new regime has changed the obverses of the medals given while they existed.

    From 1852 until 1857 the uncrowned effigy or Napoleon III looked to the left. In 1857/58 the effigy was bore a laurel crown. stil looking left. About 1864/65 the laurelled effigy was turned to the right until the end of the Second Empire in 1870.

    I hope this answers the question asked by TacHel.

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    The changes from one effigy to the next just occured as they did on coins and postage stamps. No official statement or law are known to have existed, although instructions certainly must exist in the Archives of the Paris Mint. To my knowledge? they have not been examined by collectors or researchers.

    For this reason, collectors are trying to narrow down the dates when changes occured by recouping known medals of each types with the dates when the medals were published in the Journal Officiel or its predecessor the Moniteur.

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    This makes sense. Such matters are not of national importance and would not have to be published in the Moniteur or Journal Officiel.

    On the other hand, ALL official awards of French life-saving medals issued by one of the Government Minsitries were published. They are sometimes hard to find, but there they are.... or were when it comes to awards to foreign recipients, since the 1870s.

    Edited by Veteran
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    • 1 month later...

    Yeah, this is a nightmare... trying to display this one within my site... Do the changes in design mostly go with the various Republics, etc., since the award was established?

    Ripping hair out. Think I'll go do a different medal :)

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    You are absolutely right .... obverses changed with each change of political regime. And they also changed during reigns of kings or emperors. Very much in the same way coins changed.

    Trying to pin down dates when changes really occured is one of life-saving medals collectors' fun-thing; There is still lots of room for further knowledge, since the only way to tell is to find the dates of awards of kown medals., check the style of the medal and record it.

    You are welcome to join the (very small) crowd if and when you feel like it.

    Best regards

    Veteran

    Edited by Veteran
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    Well, that gives me a starting point: 7 variants x the different levels.

    Now to find images to illustrate it all... and slot them into the right places!

    I have 10 or 11 different ones... Expect pics in the next few days. :cool:

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    Hi Frank,

    From my reference material, I can provide the following information:

    Decrees: Ministry of the Interior: 16 Nov 1901 and Ministry of the Marine: 14 Dec 1901.

    The Original decree was 2 Mar 1820 by the Ministry of Marine.

    It appears that the medal was originally a medal that was not wearable. This changed 31 Jan 1833 (Could be another decree here) by the Ministry of the Marine, Interior and Public Works. As already noted in this thread, there are many designs. Here is what I've been able to find:

    Louis XVIII

    Charles X

    Louis-Philippe

    Inscription Republique Francaise 1848

    Napoleon III (1870)

    Republic de Barre (1875) (In 1899 the Ministry of Marine replaced this version by one of the Republic of Marey)

    ROTY (1897)

    Allegoric figure of Courdray (1950)

    There are 8 different faces for the Ministry of the Interior version, and 7 different faces for the Ministry of the Marine.

    Hope this helps.

    Jean-paul

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