"1783" Medal Balloon Flight Demonstration Ag Abeille SP(PCGS#936242)

"1783" Medal Balloon Flight Demonstration Ag Abeille SP (PCGS#936242)

February 2025 Collectors Choice Online Auction - World Coins

详细说明: By Nicolas-Marie Gatteaux. Diameter: 42mm. Obverse: Uniformed bust of Louis XVI facing right, perimeter legend LUD XVI . REX CHRISTIANISS. to the left and right; signature GATTEAUX below bust; Reverse: Paris, seated, leaning against lion, looking upward at a balloon aloft among clouds, a pair of keys laying at her feet; Genius in the clouds holding torch below the balloon to heat its air; recumbent lion on ground below; perimeter legend ATTONITUS ORBIS TERRARUM above, three-line legend ITINERE PER AERA FELICITER / TENTATO ANNO / MDCCLXXXIII in exergue below; signature GATTEAUX in landscape at right. Joseph-Michel and Étienne Montgolfier began experimenting with balloon flight in 1782; on 19 September 1783 they were demonstrating a balloon flight at Versailles in front of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and a sizable crowd with the first creatures to be taken aloft - a duck, sheep, and rooster. The flight lasted about eight minutes, the balloon traversed approximately two miles, and landed safely - with all creatures quite alive. The first human-piloted flight would take place two months later on the outskirts of Paris.<p>This medal offers lustrous, mottled sepia and mahogany surfaces. Some light, scattered abrasions are seen on the obverse. An attractive medal richly celebrating the achievement of man's millennia-long desire to break the bonds of earth. Rare.