Hi folks, I'm trying to find some information on this medal, but everything I can find online is another medal with a slightly different inscription. A search online will bring up lots of examples of medals like this with the reverse inscription of "Ministere du Agriculture" but this one clearly says "Ministere du Commerce". I'm pretty sure the it was called the Ministry of Commerce and Agriculture, but why the different inscriptions? Can anyone shed some light on this? I've seen gold, silver, and copper versions of the Agriculture medals. This commerce medal is silver and toning beautifully as you can see from the pics.
From this list on Wikipedia, it looks like there was a single Minister of Agriculture & Commerce (combined) until 1881, and after that they were separated.
Seems that several ministries issued such medals. Here is one with an engraved name. And this is a similar medal, also designed by Hubert Ponscarme, but this time it is from the Interior Ministry ... Christian
Interesting! That's the first time I've seen another from the Commerce Ministry. I guess they never got around to giving mine to anyone (which explains the great condition) and appears it to be a fairly common medal.
I believe I see a "Cornucopia" to the left of ARGENT. That is the mintmark (called a Different) for the Monnaies de Paris. Since the Paris Mint owns the rights to the medals they produce, regardless of who designs them, they have the right to use them as they see fit. I happen to have three medals which use the same obverse design, but are paired with three different reverse designs. Chris
