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Austro-Hungarian Empire
Commemorative Medal for the 1864 Military Campaign against Denmark



Jointly instituted by the emperor of Austria Franz Joseph I and the king of Prussia Wilhelm I on November 10, 1864 to commemorate the victory of the Prussian-Austrian coalition in the Second Schleswig War (February 01 – October 30, 1864) against Denmark. Medals issued in the kingdom of Prussia had slightly shorter name, viz. “Commemorative Medal for the 1864 Military Campaign” (Kriegs-Denkmünze für 1864) and differed in design of obverse. This article describes Austrian medal only, information on a Prussian one can be found here.
Medal was issued to military personnel (officers, NCOs and other ranks) of army units that crossed the southern border of Holstein and remained in the enemy territory since the outbreak of war, i.e. February 01, 1864 until the beginning of the preliminary peace negotiations on August 02, 1864.
Unlike Prussian decoration an Austrian award was instituted in one variant only, i.e. for combatants. Its statute was approved by Franz Joseph I on November 11, 1864 and gazetted on November
An obverse contained two crowned ciphers of Austrian and Prussian monarchs (“FJ” and “W”). It’s worth mentioning here that the sequence of rulers’ monograms on the Prussian medal was vice-versa thus representing the main difference of both designs.
A reverse had a horizontal inscription in capital letters “To our gallant warriors
An edge of the medal was inscribed “From Captured Cannon” (“Aus erobertem Geschuetz”) in capital letters. Privately purchased medals had plain edges.
Commemorative Medal for the 1864 Military Campaign against Denmark was manufactured at the Berlin mint, had a diameter of
A round medal was worn on a black silk
Medals were presented to military personnel without neither presentation cases nor award documents. Corresponding entries were made in personal records of veterans and in their discharge papers upon demobilization.