1870 Franco Prussian war balloon medal... in Norway.

[Flightpath]

Hi,

 

I've had this small medal in my collection for many years, it was made here in Norway from from metal parts from a balloon that was launched in Paris on 24th November 1870.

 

The launch of the 'Ville d' Orleans' was at 11pm with Paul Rolier and Lt. Leonard Bezier (carrying important military mail) on board. After a short time the balloon became caught in a storm and flying on in darkness they almost crashed in the North Sea but dropped sandbags and a 65kg mail bag, the mail bag was found by fishermen and returned to France. (Some of these letters are on ebay right now!)

 

The balloon continued on over the North Sea and ended up flying over Norway. The two men jumped out into the snow as the balloon came close to a hilltop, the balloon continued on it's way and was found 80 km away. The men still didn't know where they were until some hours later when they came across two men at a cabin who took them to the nearest village. They then found that they were in Telemark, Norway and had flown over 1300km.

 

They made their way to Christiania (now Oslo) via sled and then train and arrived on November 29th. As they told the story of the hardships of the Paris siege many people wanted to raise money to help the people of Paris, metal parts of the balloon were melted down and small medals were made and sold, a total of 47,000 francs were raised and returned with the men to France.......

 

This is one of the small medals that were made in 1870 to raise the money for the people of Paris....... there's quite a bit here and there about this strange story on the net. The flight was the first manned flight in Norway and the longest balloon flight up until that time.

 

Hope you liked the story, cheers, John

 

 

[RRA227]

Neat. Never seen it. Rich A. in Pa.

[stratasfan]

That is such a super cool story! Thanks so much for sharing! About how big is your medal? Also, anyone know about how many of these were made? That is such a super cool story! And the little card is cool, too!

[Brig]

John,

 

First time seeing this post...very neat item, but so much better that we know the story behind it. So often odd little pieces like this have lost their stories over the years

[Flightpath]

The medal is quite small, only 18mm diameter.... I called a coin shop in Oslo and was told that these are valued at around 400kr and they had a couple of them for sale. So even with a great story they are not very valuable.... probably thousands were made and most are still in Norway.

[Brig]

Similar to the coins struck with the remains of the USS Maine... the appeal is in the history, not the value for things like this