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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 8166785, member: 128351&quot;]This medallion did not &quot;mysteriously disappear&quot; at all, it was stolen, yes, together with more than 2000 ancient gold coins and other unique treasures, in the Burglary of the Century (the 19th, of course).</p><p><br /></p><p>The burglary was committed in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, in the night of the 5/6 November 1831. The robbers had stolen all ancient and modern gold coins, but also unique gold objects like medallions, the Charlemagne&#039;s Cup, King Louis I the Pious&#039; sceptre and the gold funerary treasure of Childeric, king of the Franks, father of king Clovis who founded the French monarchy and state in the late 5th c.</p><p><br /></p><p>Eugène François Vidocq, Director of the Sûreté Nationale, was called. This man was the most famous French policeman of the time. He was himself a ex-convict who had served years in jail, had escaped several times, and personally knew many of the worst thugs of the early 19th c. He had created the Sûreté (a plain clothes police) under Napoleon and had survived all the regime changes, entrusted by the emperor, the restored Bourbon monarchy and the constitutional monarchy of 1830. Inspecting the crime scene in the Bibliothèque Nationale, he reconstructed the modus operandi and declared he knew only one man able to do this, Étienne Fossard, but who was presently in jail. Then he was told that Fossard had just escaped one week ago and was on the run.</p><p><br /></p><p>Vidocq&#039;s men, many of them ex-convicts too, started a manhunt in Paris with the help of informants. Fossard was soon caught, but he denied everything and there was no evidence against him. When policemen raided his brother Jacques&#039; home, they found gold ingots and all the tools needed to melt gold. Jacques talked, and confessed he had panicked, melted most of the coins and gold objects, and thrown the rest in the river Seine. Divers were sent and recovered a few pieces from under the Pont Marie (a bridge).</p><p><br /></p><p>All accomplices were arrested and sentenced to decades in bagne (forced labor), except for the gang&#039;s fence: Delphine de Jacquot d’Andelarre, Vicountess of Nays-Candau, a friend of the Queen! Gold ingots from the burglary were recovered from her home but, to avoid a state scandal, she was not prosecuted and could flee to Switzerland with a few ingots.</p><p><br /></p><p>The biggest loss was Childeric&#039;s gold ring, a true national treasure. It was never recovered, but only a few gold and enamel bees from his mantle and his sword guard. In subsequent years the Cabinet des Médailles bought on the market many Greek and Roman gold coins to replace the stolen ones, but of course unique medallions could never be replaced. Fortunately Mionnet, an assistant curator, had made sulphur casts like the one in the OP.</p><p><br /></p><p>There is a small chance some of the gold coins (and even more !) is still on the river floor under the Pont Marie in Paris. In my childhood I used to cross this bridge twice a day on my way to school, but I never heard a distant voice from the river saying : &quot;Hey ! I&#039;m Childeric ! I&#039;m still here !&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1426106[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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