103485 | FRANCE. Paris International Expo bronze Award Medal.

103485  |  FRANCE. Paris International Expo bronze Award Medal. Issued 1900 as the official prize [awarded to Lasche] (63mm, 12h). By Jules-Clément Chaplain at the Paris mint.

 

REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE, bust of Marianne right, wearing oak wreath; oak tree to the left; cityscape of Paris in the background to right // EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE INTERNATIONALE, Victory flying left, with head upturned to the right, holding a wreath and palm frond, and bearing victor, holding a torch, upon her back; view of the expo hall in the background; in exergue, cartouche with "LASCHE" embossed in one line.

 

Maier 79; Gadoury p. 47, 4.(b); Button 29; Wurzbach 7193. PCGS MS-64. Deep brown surfaces, with a supremely glossy and radiant nature. Compare to similar examples that recently sold for $960 and $480.

 

Visited by more than 50 million visitors, the 1900 Paris World's Fair, styled in French as the Exposition Universelle, ran from 14 April to 12 November, occurring in conjunction with the games of the II Olympiad—also held in Paris. The theme of the expo was a celebration of the century that was and the century that would be. Some of the technological advancements that were exhibited included the diesel engine, electric cars, talking films, and dry cell batteries, with Art Nouveau given a spotlight and being introduced to the world.

 

It is difficult to know to whom this medal was specifically presented, but the likely awardee was Oskar Lasche, a German mechanical engineer who was a pioneer in the workings of turbines and was highly influential in laying the groundwork for modern industrial aesthetics. In Industries of Architecture (2015), a shop-floor plan of an unidentified AEG factory with electrical power transmission designed by Lasche was published, having been originally published in Elektrischer Einzelantrieb und seine Wirtschaftlichkeit, Z-VDI, no. 36, 44 (1900), 1193.

 

About this particular design, Nicolas Maier mentions that Chaplain received a fee of some 10,000 francs and that "...in addition, Chaplain undertook to produce additional dies for the obverse and reverse of the medal at the price of 400 francs per piece. A total of 36 striking dies were afterwards supplied, 17 for the obverse and 19 for the reverse."

 

Upload: 20 July 2026.