[Illustration: No. 1 German Volksbund for Prisoners Medal]
There is a French counterpart to this medal. A small medal, 26 millimeters in diameter, similar to No. 1 in its motives, but apparently more artistically designed, is known to have been struck in France. No specimen is available in this country. According to the brief description in J. Schulman’s Catalogue LXXIII it was designed by O. Yencesse and executed in a silvery white metal. The obverse shows a French soldier seated in an attitude of despondency. The inscription reads: POUR NOS—PRISONNIERS. that is: “For Our Prisoners.” On the reverse a dove is visible bearing in its bill an olive branch. Below is the date 1916. The motive of the issuance of this medal was patently fund raising.
No. 2 is a medal made of hard white metal, and struck for the German prisoners of war interned at Douglas, Isle of Man, to commemorate their detention there. Its diameter measures 46 millimeters. On the top there is a rectangular vertical loophole. The obverse shows the Douglas prison camp, in the foreground its barracks and huts, also an unfolded banner is visible; in the background a fortress at the left of the beholder, and a lighthouse at the right. Between the fortress and the lighthouse is the Manx triskelion or triquerta, occupying a prominent place in the upper center. The entire picture on the obverse is enclosed by a surrounding wreath of barbed wire. The reverse has a wreath of leaves with a panel in the middle. The inscription reads, in the upper segment: WELTKRIEG 1914-1915 (“World War 1914-1915”); in the lower: DOUGLAS ISLE OF MAN; in the middle: ERINNERUNG AN DIE KRIEGSHAFT (“In commemoration of war detention”). No artist’s name is given. Specimens of this medal are found in the museum of the American Numismatic Society, New York City, and in this writer’s collection. The first mentioned specimen is in an (original) plain wooden case with no ornament. Other wooden cases are known, on the cover of which an inlaid design is visible representing an open-jawed snake as the symbol of war. The words _Weltkrieg 1914/15_ are added on the case. This medal was pictured and briefly, though not exactly, described in _The New York Times_ of August 26, 1916. In The Numismatist of March 1916, a reproduction with a few explanatory lines was also published, the medal having been exhibited at the January meeting of the New York Numismatic Club.