(sold for $20.0)

1911, France. Silver "Military Preparation / Physical Training" Medal. 24.14gm!

Mint Year: 1911 Mint Place: Paris Medallist:  P. Grandhomme Condition: Lightly wiped, with a few digs/scratches, otherwise  XF! Denomination: Award Medal - Official award by the Ministry of War for Military Preparation and Physical Training Material: Silver (.900) Weight: 24.14gm Diameter: 36mm

Obverse: Marianne seated right on canon, head left, instructing French soldier to left; in background to right, troops advancing left. Legend: SI · VIS · PACEM · PARA BELLVM ("If peace be that which one desires, for war one must prepare.") Exergue: PRO · PATRIA ("for the fatherland") Reverse: Two lines inscribed upon tablet; below, lion reclining right; military and musical instruments around. Tablet Inscription: PRIX du MINISTRE/de la GUERRE ("Prize of the Ministry of War") Legend: PREPARATION · MILITAIRE ENTRAINEMENT · PHУSIQUE ("military preparation and physical training") Exergue: FORCE · COURAGE ("force, courage")

Marianne  is a national symbol of the French Republic, a personification of liberty and reason, and a portrayal of the Goddess of Liberty. Marianne is displayed in many places in France and holds a place of honour in town halls and law courts. She symbolizes the Triumph of the Republic, a bronze sculpture overlooking the Place de la Nation in Paris, and is represented with another Parisian statue in the Place de la République. Her profile stands out on the official government logo of the country, is engraved on French euro coins and appears on French postage stamps; it also was featured on the former franc currency. Marianne is one of the most prominent symbols of the French Republic, and is officially used on most government documents. Marianne is a significant republican symbol, opposed to monarchy, and an icon of freedom and democracy against all forms of dictatorship. Other national symbols of France include the tricolor flag, the national motto Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, the national anthem "La Marseillaise", as well as the coat of arms and the official Great Seal of France.

The French Third Republic (French: La Troisième République, sometimes written as La IIIe République) was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France and the Vichy France puppet government.

Maurice Larkin (2002) argued that political France of the Third   Republic was sharply polarized. On the left marched democratic France,   heir to the French Revolution and fully assured of the power of reason and knowledge to create a   better future for all Frenchmen and all mankind. On the right stood   conservative France, rooted in the peasantry, the Church and the army,   and skeptical about "progress" unless guided by traditional elites. Adolphe Thiers called republicanism in the 1870s "the form of government that divides   France least". The Third Republic endured seventy years, making it the   longest lasting government in France since the collapse of the Ancien Régime in the French Revolution of 1789, and the longest ever since.