WWI French Verdun medals

[Sumserbrown]

Around 70% of all the French soldiers that were engaged in World War I participated to the battle of Verdun. Six or seven different designs were put forward for the medal but none were approved by the French Government and all remained unofficial awards that could not be worn on military uniform.

 

Originally intended to be “awarded to those who served on the Verdun front between 21 February 1916 and 2 November 1916, the medal was, in fact, awarded to those who served anywhere on the Argonne and St Mihiel sectors between 31 July 1914 and 11 November 1918 and can be found in some medal groups from non-French soldiers, eg US participants.

 

The medal is fitted with a loose ring suspender and a piece of 37 mm red ribbon that has blue-white-red edges.

 

The original, and most commonly found, version was by Vernier but since supplies of this medal were inadequate, others created Verdun medals and at least seven versions of varying rarity are known. Some of the versions themselves have different variants, eg on the suspension or the bar.

 

Starting with the Vernier version, ball variant with bar:

 

 

and then the ring variant:

 

[Sumserbrown]

Augier version

 

[Sumserbrown]

Prudhomme version

 

[Sumserbrown]

Anonymous version

 

[Sumserbrown]

Rene version

 

 

Rene version with Verdun bar and an extra Verdun remembrance pin

 

[Sumserbrown]

 

Revillon version, ball variety

 

 

Revillon version, ring variety

 

[Sumserbrown]

 

Rasumny version

 

[Allan H.]

I've never seen all of the variations of this medal! Sure, I have encountered dozens of them in WWI groups and have seen dozens more for sale at shows and on line, but I never realized that there were so many variations. This is truly an impressive grouping of medals. Thank you for sharing them.

 

I am interested in knowing if there are other bars to the medal, and is the remembrance pin just something that someone has pinned to a ribbon, or was the medal designed to take other devices?

 

Allan

[Sumserbrown]

Hi Allan,

 

the medal itself was not an official one from the French government but ordered and issued by the city of Verdun itself. Their official version was the Vernier medal, and this is by far the most common issued, most frequently seen now and cheapest of the medals here. If I recall correctly, all the WWI US groups I have seen with a Verdun medal have contained the Vernier version, I would be interested to know if you or anyone else has seen another version in a US group. The supply of Vernier medals did not meet the demand, so other suppliers brought out their own versions and you certainly see the other versions in French medal groups.

 

The Vernier medal was never issued with a bar; the Augier medal was always issued with a bar. For the other versions, I have seen them with a bar and without so I am not sure whether they always had bars, didn't always have bars, or the bars were optional.

 

The pins for sure were added later and not issued at the time. I suspect these were either sweetheart brooches or later souvenirs. There are various types which you sometimes see added to the Verdun medals. I really like the pin shown as it has the name of Verdun, the cross of Lorraine (area where Verdun is) and Lily of The Valley flowers to signify 'return to happiness'.

 

All of these medals above are seen for sale on sites (eg Ebay) and can be obtained fairly easily at varying prices (something like 30 - 350 USD) depending on the relative rarity of the medal in question.

 

The Rasumny medal is probably not one of the real Verdun medals but a souvenir. However, it seems rare so commands a high price. Even rarer are the Steiner and Dutemps (souvenir?) medals which I do not have yet in my collection. I was offered a Steiner medal several years ago for 600 USD but couldn't afford it at the time; I have not seen one for sale since.

 

Rob

 

 

 

[Sumserbrown]

I also thoroughly recommend buying this book if you can find a copy. It's in French, but it is a very comprehensive guide to the Verdun medals, souvenirs, pins certificates etc

Rob

Scan2023-01-09_182155.pdf

[Sumserbrown]

Looking through Silvert's book again, he lists and has pictures of the 7 bars that he knows (see PDF file attached).

I have just acquired another variant of the Prudhomme version; this one is the ball variant, the one I posted earlier being the knob variant. This ball variant has Silvert's bar type #7 by an unknown manufacturer.

 

 

Scan2023-01-13_141828.pdf

[Sumserbrown]

This is a recent acquisition to my collection, the rare version by Pautot

 

[Sumserbrown]

Augier ring variation, with bar type 1

 

Prudhomme ring variant in silver

 

Prudhomme knob variant, with Silvert bar type 8

 

[Sumserbrown]

I have acquired a few more versions and variants of the Verdun medal which I will be posting here

 

This is a version by Dropsy

 

 

 

 

[Sumserbrown]

 

Mattei version in bronze

 

 

[stratasfan]

Thanks for sharing all these. This is amazing to see all the variations! Just love French medals, so this has been interesting and fun to read through!

[Ivydiv]

Fascinating. Thanks for posting. Dave

[Sumserbrown]

Rare Steiner version in bronze

 

 

[Sumserbrown]

 

Vernier type, in vermeil.

Vermeil is a style of French jewelry where the item is made in high grade silver and then electroplated with a veneer of gold. As this is a medal made from precious metals it has hallmark from the mint (lozenge shaped mark on the medal near where the planchet joins the ring). As you would expect, this version is a lot more expensive than the standard Vernier version in bronze.

 

 

[Carrabassett]

Thanks for posting, very informative!

[Sumserbrown]

I previously posted the Prud'homme version, ring variant in silver and this is the same ring variant but in bronze

 

 

[easterneagle87]

Awesome article! Thank you for sharing. I have a US veterans uniform with a Verdun medal pinned on. Now I'm going to have to dig it out and see which one is one it. 

[Sumserbrown]

1 hour ago, easterneagle87 said:

Awesome article! Thank you for sharing. I have a US veterans uniform with a Verdun medal pinned on. Now I'm going to have to dig it out and see which one is one it. 

 

I would be very interested to hear which medal you have on the uniform and also very interested to hear from anyone else if they have a Verdun medal in a group of other medals to a soldier. I have frequently seen the Vernier medal in groups, then less frequently a Prud'homme and then less frequently again the anonymous or Revillon versions. I suspect some of the medals above are 'souvenir' medals rather than 'awards', but I would love to be proved wrong and find some of the rarer ones to be actually part of a group of medals.

Rob

[Sumserbrown]

There are a surprising number of different bars on the Verdun medals. In his book 'La Medaille de Verdun', 2006, Thierry Silvert lists 8 bars, which I have put in his order in the image below. I have also added two more modern (but different) bars, all from my collection. I can't speak for the rarity of each type here but type 3 was the one that took me longest to find. Please let me know if you have any other bars not listed here.

[Sumserbrown]

Vernier ring-type Verdun medal in solid silver. Note the hallmarks on the obverse and reverse near the ring