102616 | GERMANY, GREAT BRITAIN & EGYPT. Awakening of Egypt cast iron Medal.

102616  |  GERMANY, GREAT BRITAIN & EGYPT. The Awakening of Egypt cast iron Medal. Dated 1915. "Ägypten erwacht" (57mm, 50.14 g, 12h). By Karl Goetz in München.

 

SIR GREY ZEIG’DEINE MACHT! (Sir Grey, show your strength!”), facing bust of Sir Edward Grey (1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon), with a concerned look on his face, clasping his hands together in supplication and sweating rather profusely; behind to right, Death (as a skeleton) whispering into his ear and holding an hourglass over his other shoulder // Sphinx right, with head left, seated upon ground line inscribed ÄGYPTEN/ERWACHT (Egypt awakens) in two lines; in background, star and crescent (representing the Ottoman Empire) over the pyramids, with Ottoman troops rallying. Edge: Plain.

 

Kienast 166; Klose –; The Art of Devastation –; Jones, Dance of Death –; Frankenhuis 1433. PCGS MS-61. Deep charcoal gray surfaces, with a lighter, dustier hue in some of the recesses, allowing the eye sockets of the skeleton to provide further intrigue. An extremely haunting issue. Please ignore PCGS's classification of this to the Third Reich. Obviously, it was issued under the Empire. This medal was slabbed after a run of other cast iron Third Reich medals, and the "mech error" of the Third Reich was applied.

 

Following the defeat of Egyptian forces in the Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882, Great Britain occupied the former Ottoman province, though the latter empire still claimed suzerainty even after Egypt was declared a British protectorate in 1914. In order to formally reinstate their influence in the region, Ottoman forces attacked British forces in Egypt the following year, with regional powers during the first world war starting to align themselves. This particular medal was a jab by Goetz at Sir Edward Grey, then British Foreign Secretary, urging him to stand up to the rising unrest against the British occupation of the region.

 

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Upload: 22 October 2024.