Commemorative medal of the 1860 China Expedition depicts Napoleon III
Award description
The Commemorative medal of the 1860 China Expedition was a 30 mm in diameter circular silver medal designed and engraved by Albert Désiré Barre. Its obverse bore the left profile of Emperor Napoleon III crowned with a laurel wreath surrounded by the relief inscription "NAPOLEON III" "EMPEREUR" (English: "NAPOLEON III" "EMPEROR"). A 4 mm wide relief laurel wreath ran along the entire circumference of both the obverse and reverse of the medal.On the reverse, within the laurel wreath, the circular relief inscription EXPÉDITION DE CHINE 1860 (English: CHINA EXPEDITION 1860). At the centre, the relief inscription on four lines of the campaign's major battles TA-KOU, CHANG-KIA-WAN, PA-LI-KIAO, PE-KING.The medal was suspended from a 36 mm wide silk moiré yellow ribbon, at its center, the name of the city of Peking woven in blue Chinese characters. (Actually it reads Kingpe or Jingbei with the two Hanzi characters switched. This was clearly a mistake.)