French Coins and Military Medals from WWI and WWII

Greetings World Coin Forum members.

This is my first post on this forum. I’ve been a CoinTalk member for a few years but I’m primarily an Ancient Forum participant. Anyway, I’ll start my post with a couple of coins from 1916 which is the year the Battle of Verdun was fought followed by my collection of military medals.



Are there any of you who collect military medals?

I became interested in French medals when I visited and toured the World War I battlefields of Europe. The Douaumont Cemetery and Ossuary at the Verdun Battlefield had a powerful and moving effect on me.

 

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Really amazing medals, Deacon Ray!!

 

Very cool! I'm afraid the only military medals I actively collect are awarded to me (and hopefully I'm done receiving them!). I do have a great appreciation for war memorabilia. Here's a matchbox from Switzerland, WWII. Despite Swiss neutrality, soldiers were deployed throughout the country in defensive positions. The Soldiers Association produced and distributed these to those deployed, so they could keep their matches dry.


And here's an article I wrote about the Lusitania Medal Goetz that I purchased from the Gettysburg Show a couple years back. I believe it to be a contempirary copy created in Pennsylvania.

http://coinzip.com/articlesPage.php?i=36

 

Only one of my family relatives was awarded the Ritterkreuz (Knight's Cross)
He knocked out 66 Soviet heavy tanks in March/ April 1945/ plus many anti tank guns. Luckily he got to serve on board a Porsche built KonigsTiger, best tank of WW2.

 

Those are some cool medals and coins @Deacon Ray ! France made some pretty good looking stuff around this time. I have this neat aluminum emergency coin from World War I.

 

Here's a French 5 franc note I found in a foreign currency bin. It seems to have been an American soldier's souvenir after landing at Omaha Beach on D-Day.

 

My mother was a US Navy finance officer at Treasure Island in San Francisco in 1944 and 1945.

This little French note was with her papers, but she didn't remember where she got it, except that one of the jobs that her office did was to change foreign money brought back by sailors and marines.


France 5 Francs World War II Allied note
Reverse has writing: "H-HOUR 0630 D-DAY JUNE 6, 1944."

 

Very interesting pieces of history @Hiddendragon and @willieboyd2 ! Thank you for posting.

 

Thank you for posting your fascinating Swiss matchbox, @Seattlite86 ! I purchased a related item a few years ago. It was a WWII era white porcelain plate with an illustration of a father holding a rifle, in a Swiss Army uniform, standing ready to protect his wife and children. It was done in a Delft Blue enamel. Unfortunately, it’s in storage and I cannot find a photo of it.

Your essay on the RMS Lusitania Medal Karl Goetz medal is great!

 

I agree, @chrsmat71 —I’m finding French coins from the period very interesting. To date, the only ones I have are the centime coins shown above. That could change in 2020 however

 

This is my Treaty of Versailles medal. I have posted it before but it is one of my favorite medals.

 

My great-grandfather was a petty officer during the Second world war. In one battle he killed 60 German soldiers. For this he was awarded the Order of glory.

 

My great-grandfather.

 

Uncle of my wife, second leutenant Gregory Taranov was awarded the Medal of Honor (Soviet) at 1943. He single-handedly attacked a German detachment (18 soldiers and 2 officers)and captured them.

 

I don't have a picture handy of it, but I have my grandfather's chit from WWII. He was in China/Burma/India and it is written in Chinese (to my knowledge) but I've never gotten it deciphered. I also think it is on silk with the Burmese, Chinese, and US flags embroidered on it. I have it framed and displayed but know so little about it since I didn't come across it until after his death.

Does anyone know of someone, someplace, or a site that can give me more insight?

 

French tokens of WW I.

 

He did well. Congratulations on his accomplishment and your medal.

 

Thank you very much sir!

 

I have this french médal of the end of the 19 century , not war medal may be for musician ,poet (the lyra represent the lyrical poetry )

 

These are my fathers WWII medals, he celebrated his 99th birthday yesterday.
He served from 1939-1946

He stayed on until 1946 to help clear Calais of German mines.

Among other things he destroyed many German trains on the Dutch coast with a Bofars cannon.

He also captured a U-Boat in the Atlantic at the very end of WWII.



My Grandfather served in the Infantry in WWI but was shrapnel wounded in Ypres in 1914.
He was awarded several medals however the Germans got a second bite of the cherry, the Luftwaffe bombed his house in WWII and his medals and everything else was destroyed.
He survived as did my mother and siblings.

Here's my medals, obviously not WWI or WWII
They are classified for security reasons so what you see is what you get.



I've collected coins for decades but I started collecting medals around 15 years ago.
I got these some months ago.

They were looted war booty.

Nazi civilian cross of honour, Der Deutsche Mutter.

Cross of Honour of the German Mother, an award instituted following a December 16, 1938, decree by Adolph Hitler to encourage German women to bear more children.
It was awarded by the Nazi Party in Hitler's name, with his signature engraved on the back.
A recipient could be nominated by the Party or a government official and had to be of pure German origin and good character. The medal was issued in three levels: first class, gold, for mothers with eight or more children; second class, silver, for six to seven children; third class, bronze for four to five children. The medals were awarded from 1939 to 1944 to more than three million German women.





German Eastern Front.
The Eastern Front Medal (German: Medaille „Winterschlacht im Osten 1941/42“) was a World War II German military decoration awarded to both German and Axis personnel. It was awarded to those who served on the German Eastern Front during the winter campaign period of 15 November 1941 to 15 April 1942

The one on the right is a die struck aluminium award for civilian air raid personel.




Medals for the Spanish.

Francos neutrals

Spanish volunteers to the Nazi cause.

The Blue Division officially designated as División Española de Voluntarios by the Spanish Army fighting in Russia.



Some other German stuff.





I have many other medals, some from the Boer War, some from the Crimea War, and lots of WWI.
Too many to show right now.