102626 | MEXICO & FRANCE. Louis Philippe I/Battle of Veracruz bronze Medal.

102626  |  MEXICO & FRANCE. Louis Philippe I/Battle of Veracruz bronze Medal. Dated 1838 (though struck circa 1842-1845) (70mm, 235.99 g, 12h). By A. J. Depaulis.

 

LVDOVICVS · PHILIPPVS · I · FRANCORVM · REX, laureate head left // IVS GENTIVM ARMIS GALLICIS VINDICATVM, female allegory of Victory, armored and draped, flying left, holding eagle-tipped scepter and thunderbolt; below, French ship within Port of Veracruz near the fortress San Juan de Ulúa; in three lines in exergue, CASTELLO S. IOANNIS DE VLVA / EXPVGNATO D. XXVII NOV. / M DCCC XXXVIII. Edge: BRONZE «prow», and a few minor dings and nicks are noted, but ones that do not take away from its impressive nature.

 

Collignon 1150. Choice Mint State. Deep chocolate brown surfaces with great brilliance and excellent relief. Includes original box of issue. A very rare and intriguing French-aligned medal that pertains to early Mexican history.

 

The early decades of Mexico's post-colonial history involved a large degree of chaos and disorder, an episode of which included the looting of property. Given little clarity in the form of a governing body, those seeking compensation for lost property had little recourse. For foreigners in Mexico who had similarly suffered losses, claims were thus made to their native country. In one such instance, Monsieur Remontel, a French-born pastry chef with a shop in Mexico City, claimed that Mexican offers had looted his shop in 1832. Remontel sought compensation from his homeland, issuing a complaint to French sovereign Louis Philippe. A few years later in 1837, French prime minister Louis-Mathieu Molé issued a strong financial demand to the Mexican government in order to rectify a number of these alleged crimes. Mexican president Anastasio Bustamante simply ignored the rather inflated financial demands and, in response, Louis Philippe ordered a French fleet to conduct a blockade of Mexican ports, a bombing of the fortress San Juan de Ulúa, and the seizing of Veracruz. Lasting just over three months, the "Pastry War," so-called on account of Remontel's confectionary trade, came to an end following a British-brokered peace. Just over a decade later, however, France, then under the rule of Napoléon III, would play another important role in Mexican history, being behind the Habsburg-led Second Mexican Empire under Maximilian.

 

Upload: 15 November 2023.

 

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