La Medalla del Busto del Liberator Simon Bolivar, Venezuela

[pieter1012]

Recently I bought the shown award document for the Medalla del Busto del Liberator Simon Bolivar, issued by the President of Venezuela in 1880. It is made of vellin and awarded to a frenchman. This medal was instituted by the President of Venezuela in March 1854, and  was abolished by the establishment of the Order of the Liberator in Sept 1880.

The only pictures I could find of this medal is the one I show here. The site Condecorationes Venezuela mentions the medal, but only shows the reverse.

If any member has better pictures of this medal, or perhaps even owns one, I would be very grateful to get clear pictures, to accompany the award document.

Thanks and regards, Pieter

Edited October 17, 2021 by pieter1012

[Marcon1]

http://condecoracionesdevenezuela.com/periodo-independencia-medalla-del-busto-del-libertador/

[pieter1012]

Hi Marcon,

thank you for the link. However, this is the Peruvian version of the medal, that was instituted by the government of Peru in 1825, after their independence. Fortunately, there is more information and are more pictures available of this Peru medal.

The Venezuelan version, instituted in 1854, has the same name, but has a different design as can been seen in the picture I added. It is also much rarer, and I have never seen one on the market. In the Morton & Eden auction of the collection of the American Numismatic Society, only the Peru version was offered.

But anyway thanks for your reaction and with best regards,

Pieter

[mgranadillo]

My answer may come quite late, but if helps, the reason why the medal model used between 1854 and 1880 is so scarce rest in 2 factors, 1) the “new model” is commonly believed that was introduced in 1880 but there’s evidence that is older (around 1875) but only legally recognized in 1880 so your diploma must have come accompanied by new model medal. 2) the old model concession was very scarce, and the majority were given in the 50s so for the reintroduction period (1876-1880) there were not many around and for the surviving ones there was an "invitation" to trade them for the new model  (the original model and quality was so unappealing that there was no incentive in keeping it, while the new one was very attractive back then). Once turn in, my guess is that the government eventually just melt them all… unfortunately I don’t know any surviving piece in any private or museum collection including the Tenreiro collection from where that imagen was taken. BTW wonderful example of Diploma… congrats!

This is the Diploma for the first type medal

[pieter1012]

Hi Mgranadillo,

thank you for your explanation on the background of the model of the Bust of Bolivar, that accompanied the award document I have. How did the 1880 version of the medal of the Bust of Bolivar look like? The present order has several classes, and I'm not aware it has also a medal.

By the way,  the Jules Verne museum in Nantes (France) has also a similar document as I have. Apparently president Guzman Blanco was a fan of Jules Verne's books and awarded him the medal when he was in France. I don't know if the medal is also there.

Best regards,

Pieter

[pieter1012]

Hi Mgrandillo,

I have another question on Bolivar, that you may answer.

In 1813 Simon Bolivar established the Orden de los Liberatores de Venezuela, as an award to those who devoted themselves to the independence war for Venezuela. As far as I know, the order consisted of a sevenstar medal with in the center the inscription Liberator de Venezueala, and on the reverse the name of the recipient.

I suppose this medal is very rare; do you perhaps know about how many were awarded by Simon Bolivar?

Many thanks an best regards,

Pieter