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On 29 January 1873, the French Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce asked the Monnaie de Paris to cast a bronze medal commemorating the work of the Commission Internationale du Mètre (the International Metre Commission). All the members of the Commission Internationale du Mètre received a copy of the medal in September-October 1875. Copies were also distributed to members of the French section in charge of the construction of the metric prototypes.
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The design selected for the medal was proposed by Chaplain. The medal was 10 cm in diameter and weighed 500 g.
One of its faces was decorated with allegorical figures – the figure of Science holding the new metric standard, surrounded by the figures of Europe, America and Asia – and with the Latin text Populorum concordiae sacrum. Paris 1872 (Testimony of the peoples' concord. Paris 1872). |
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The other side was engraved with a Latin text on the work of the Commission:
VIRIS DOCTIS EXEMPLARI METRI CONDENDO DELECTIS OPERIS GNAVITER ET FELICITER EXACTI MEMORIAM UNIVERSIS AC SINGULIS DEDIT GRATA GALLIA PUBLICE MDCCC LXXIIII
(To the scientists chosen to establish the prototype of the metre; France offers publicly, to each and all of them, this medal to remind them of the work successfully accomplished, as a mark of its gratitude. 1874)
Around the edge are the words:
NOVA PONDERUM AC MENSURARUM RATIO IN GALLIA INSTITUTA M GERM A REIP CONDITAE III
(New standard of weights and measures adopted in France, Germinal Year III of the foundation of the Republic.)
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The photographs are reproduced with permission from METAS.
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