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VERNIER
MODEL
The original
Verdun Medal, as created by the City Council in 1920 is a table medal, 37 mm in diameter.
It was struck in silver or in bronze and delivered either in a leather pouch or later, in
a red box, to personalities that visited the town shortly after the war's end.
Its wearable
version (diameter 26.5 mm, thickness 15 mm) has a red ribbon with border stripes in the
French national colours: red-white-blue. The medal is awarded without a ribbon clasp.
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The
obverse depicts a harnessed, helmeted female head (and shoulders, representing France),
holding an officer's sword in her right hand. On top is the famous Order of the Day from
General Pétain: "On ne passe pas" (Nobody gets through). The engraver's name,
"Vernier" is along the medal's outer edge, bottom right.
The reverse
shows the "Porte Chaussée", a Verdun town gate with two fortified towers. Over
it, the town's name is on a panel and along the bottom rim the starting date of the
battles: 21 FEVRIER 1916, is present.
Suspension of
the medal is by a ring which runs through a hole in a lug which is part of the medal. |
- Three variations are known:
- -a gilded bronze medal,
otherwise identical to the above bronze;
- -a silver medal, again
otherwise identical;
- -a bronze medal with a ball
suspension and having the reverse "Verdun" not on a panel. Diameter of this type
is 27.5 mm, thickness 1.9 mm.
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Verdun Medal diploma
in French |
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Bilingual Verdun
Medal diploma |
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Medals' Menu