France Médaille de Sainte-Hélène 1857

In an excellent condition a Saint Helena Medal 1857

Frontside: Medallion shaped medal with laurel wreath and emperor crown on top. The relief image of Emperor Napoleon I surrounded by the inscription "NAPOLÉON I EMPEREUR". Just below the image of the emperor, a small anchor, the privy mark of the award's designer, Désiré-Albert Barre.

Backside: A circular inscription "CAMPAGNES DE 1792 A 1815" In the centre, the inscription "A" "SES" "COMPAGNONS" "DE GLOIRE" "SA DERNIÈRE" "PENSÉE" "STE HÉLÈNE" "5 MAI" "1821"

Background info:

The Saint Helena Medal was the first French campaign medal. It was established in 1857 by a decree of emperor Napoleon III to recognise participation in the campaigns led by emperor Napoleon I.

Emperor Napoléon I, creator of the Order of the Legion of Honour and various other orders, never instituted commemorative campaign medals for his soldiers. In time, many veterans of these campaigns, sometimes called the "débris de la Grande Armée", began meeting within various new veterans' associations. Keeping alive their war memories and the myth of Napoléon in popular culture, they issued many unofficial commemorative and associative medals.

It would be forty two years after the last battles and exile of the emperor to the island of Saint Helena before the need to adequately and officially recognise the service of these combat veterans was eventually recognised officially by an imperial decree of Emperor Napoléon III creating, on 12 August 1857, the Saint Helena Medal. According to Fondation Napoléon 450,000 old soldiers were recorded as being alive, in the 1850s.

The Saint Helena Medal was awarded to all French and foreign soldiers, from the land armies or naval fleets, who served the Republic or the Empire between the years 1792 and 1815 inclusive.

The medal was awarded with no condition of minimum time of service or participation in a particular military campaign; it was, however, necessary to prove one's right to the medal with a record of service or leave record.

A later decree of 16 April 1864 added the Saint Helena Medal to the list of awards that could be revoked following a condemnation to a fixed prison term of one year or more for a crime committed by the recipient.

Code: 52123