I'm trying to help a friend identify a medal/coin he found as a child many years ago. I do not have pictures, but I could get them. This is a large coin, maybe 2 inches in diameter, copper colored. One side is a frontal view of man's (I think) face, not a profile view. It has the words Honneur Patrie and the dates 1914-1916. On the back is a large rooster with wings unfurled and a garland around his neck. Any ideas?
Welcome to CT! Does your medal look anything like this? 1916, France. HONNEUR ET PATRIE. By Auguste Dujardin. French sculptor, was born in Paris in 1847. He studied under Dumont. AE 50mm. I know nothing of these medals. Information found using Google going solely by the search terms you listed, took less than a minute.
To quote Austin Powers, that's not a man baby! Actually it's Marianne, a French national symbol. The rooster is a French national symbol as well. Beautiful medal!
Thank You! That's it!! Thanks to krispy and the rest. I guess I just don't do a lot of Googling...certainly not about coins. Now I need to do some research on Auguste Dujardin. thanks again!!
First of all, the piece you inquired about is NOT a coin, but rather a medal. A very important distinction to understand in your research. There does not appear to be much about this Dujardin known or shown in the historic records so you may not find a lot available online or even in print on Dujardin. I did turn up these links, one from a (Google) book titled Nature's Museum: Victorian Science and the Architecture of Display (page 184) and this Wikipedia reference on Medallic Art If you can read at least a little basic French you might try an Advanced Google search in French web sites for medals and artists. Here are a few links to medals collectors societies and sites: MedalCollectors.org HistoricalArtMedals AMSA Medals.org Fidem-Medals.org
