Just a side story that came to my mind because the medals have been started to be deleted from Numista. A year ago I added this medal here: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces51879.html (see it before it mysteriously disappears like the rest of others I added :(:(:( )
Anyway, here is a hero from Belgium whom is almost forgotten today, though he was very famous and medals were issued in his honour. This one was carved by Godefroid Devreese (1861-1941) a very famous Belgian sculpturer who also created designs for the Royal Mint in Bruxelles. Here is his wikipedia entry in French:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godefroid_Devreese
Adolphe Eugène Jean Henri Max (30 December 1869 – 6 November 1939) was a Belgian liberal politician and Mayor of Brussels from 1909 until his death.
He graduated in law at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), and entered the legal profession, besides doing journalistic work. When he was 25 years old, he was elected a province councillor for Brabant, and was elected a city councillor in 1903. After he had worked as a magistrate, he was appointed city mayor of Brussels on 6 December 1909.
On 20 August, German troops entered Brussels with an impressive show of force. A day earlier, Max had ordered the filling of trenches dug during the opening days of the war, the removal of the civic guard, and the demolition of barricades, to avoid clashes between German troops and civilians. The mayor greeted the German authorities — while refusing to shake hands with them — and even pledged to ensure the security of the troops billeted in the capital. Without delay, posters were put up throughout the city, calling on the population to obey the occupying authorities who commandeered everything they needed, including food and housing.
Even though the mayor had adopted this conciliatory policy, he fought continuously to limit the demands of the occupants until his arrest on 26 September 1914. For instance, Max combated the abusive requisitions of food: as early as 24 August, he negotiated an agreement stipulating that requisitions were to be made only in the case of payment within eight days. The Germans failed to abide by this agreement, leading to a true struggle with the mayor; when they chose to suspend the payment of requisition vouchers, Max decided in turn to suspend the payment of war contributions (Brussels had already paid 15.6 million Belgian francs out of 20 million Belgian francs claimed by the Germans). Under this pretext, the Germans arrested and subsequently deported Adolphe Max to Germany.
Max was first sent to the fort of Glatz in the Vosges where he was put into solitary confinement for a year. Later, he was transferred to the castle of Celle in Lower Saxony. The Celle incarceration was milder but repeated breaches of regulations earned him a few days more of solitary confinement. He stayed in a Berlin military prison for a few weeks prior to his return to Celle, where he stayed until 30 October 1918. He was then transferred to Goslar, also in Lower Saxony, which he left without authorization on 13 November 1918, two days after the armistice.
On 17 November 1918 the inhabitants of Brussels offered a triumphant welcome to Adolphe Max, who had finally returned after four years of imprisonment. A few days later, he was appointed minister of state. Re-elected year after year since 1909, he remained the mayor of Brussels for thirty years.
Extremely popular until the end of his life, Adolphe Max campaigned for universal adult suffrage, a goal not achieved until after his death.
please read this lovely essay on him:
http://www.britishlegion.be/pdf/Fact_sheet_no_3.pdf
Medals are in fact pieces of history; they were usually issued in small numbers, so they will never gain popular collectors literature like Krause's World Coins, but in fact, they were carved by the best artists in the national mints in their times. Medals are considered as gems, jewels in numismatic collections.
A regular coin (lets say a 2 euro piece) is like regular car, there are millions of it worldwide. A medal is a Ferrari, because it was only issued in 200 pieces:) Some people in Numista do not want to see Ferraris, Maserattis, Bugattis, but only common regular cars which they can recognize easily. So enjoy this medal before it too gets deleted
Why don't we create separate pages for every nation in WWI (something like Belgium in WWI) and add in every numismatic, philatelic and photographic item we have in our collections? Would you mind if I copy this message and start the first one for Belgium?
Belgium in war:
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic34661.html
Turkey in War:
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic34662.html
