Silver medal designed by Lefevre for `Le Secours', a French company proving assurance against accidental injury. I'm not quite sure whether the medal was issue upon the company's inauguration in 1880 or upon its takeover in 1884 of `Le Confiance', another company trading in the same market.

A rather silly fashion of the time period in France was to create a matt finish on medals. I've seen this done to a number of different pieces. Although i'm not sure as to the process used, it does look more like anodisation than purely strike or an acid bath. Regardless, the net effect invariably ensures that a lot of the design detail is lost to the naked eye and that medals look weakly struck as a consequence. Rather sad in a way.

There is a whole collecting sector devoted to the numismatics of French Assurance companies, dealing with individual company medals and `jetons de presence' from the early 1700's through to present time. Some items being very rare indeed.

My copy of Gailhouse (1986), the standard reference covering the subject, only lists this particular medal in bronze. This one is definitely silver, complete with the necessary edge markings. No doubt the latest edition of Gailhouste will correct the error in listing. Even so, it is not one of the easier items to find.

Nice medal! I cannot read the text above the three, apart from a word that may be "secours", but the piece, at least that side, is neat.

As for silver and bronze, well on this page http://www.cgb.fr/monnaies/jetons/j15/gb/monnaiesgb4ede.html it says argent ... but none of the images shows up here. So it may or may not be the one you have.

Christian

Yes indeed, the legends (obverse) are pretty much obscured by the matt finish. The main legend reads `Le Secours', but you need the coin in hand to tell. There is also a banner with writing on it directly under the pelican at the bottom obverse (yes, that's a pelican nestling its chicks), but i'm struggling to make any sense of it. I can read letters here and there. Sad that there's been so much detail planned for the piece but has been screwed with.

The one on CGB.fr may very well be the same as this one. I'm not sure. The Gailhouste reference number they quote is higher than the highest in my copy, so they are obviously a tad more up to date with their literature than I am . However in my copy the bronze is valued at 600 FrFr, the silver isn't quoted. Maybe the bronze one is rarer. If it doesn't have a matt finish to it., that would help explain