(Allocated Title) [Les Sports]

obverse design : Gallia, standing facing right, helmeted, wearing ornate cuirass and robes, her left arm extended and holding a laurel branch in her right hand. Beside her, to right, a naked man, standing with his body towards the observer and his head turned to face right. Positioned at the right base of design a small trophy of arms and in the background a richly cultivated landscape reverse design : trophy of equipment relating to sport and military training, including dumbbell, fencing sword and mask, riding harness, tennis racket and drum. These items are positioned above an uninscribed rectangular tablet at the base of which sits a dove. In the background are three groups of piled rifles, a bicycle and, at the right, shooting targets. In the distance a shining sun is partially obscured by the horizon

Pre-1914 sporting medal by Marie Alexandre Lucien Coudray (1864-1932). This decorous tribute to excellence in sporting activity is rendered in the sinuous and decorative style of 'art nouveau'. Gallia's appreciation of the sportsman's achievements endorses the widely-held belief in the positive moral and physical benefits of organised sporting endeavour as a means of encouraging the virtues of fitness, discipline and a self-respect. The references to sport and military training on the reverse suggest an inextricable link between sport and war, and acknowledges the importance of France's manhood of military age being adequately trained and prepared for the 'greater game'.

prefixed by small oval mark : ARGENT