© Jorandm (CC0)
© Jorandm (CC0)
Token - 709 l’Union Française ND
1950 year| Copper-nickel | 12.05 g | 30.1 mm |
| Location | France |
|---|---|
| Period | Fourth Republic (1946-1958) |
| Type | Medals › Membership medals |
| Year | 1950 |
| Currency | France - Masonic Tokens |
| Composition | Copper-nickel |
| Weight | 12.05 g |
| Diameter | 30.1 mm |
| Thickness | 2.3 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Technique | Milled |
| Orientation | Medal alignment ↑↑ |
| Updated | 2024-11-12 |
| Numista | N#178608 |
|---|---|
| Rarity index | 97% |
Reverse
Between two columns J and B with on the left side a square with intersecting compasses, on the right side a five-pointed star and a letter G, seven steps lead to the altar and a letter M on its base, on the altar rests a three-pointed candlestick, above it a radiating Delta with the Divine Eye; in the exergue 5950.
Script: Latin
Lettering:
FESTINA LENTE
5950
Edge
Plain
Comment
FREEMASONRYThe compass and the square are often associated in an ambivalent symbol of balance: fixity and mobility, passive and active, matter and spirit. The compass is the tool of the Creator and the great Architect of the Universe. The spacing of the compass branches obeys precise rules and varies according to the three degrees: apprentice, journeyman and master.
After the terrible years of the revolutionary period, the Napoleonic era saw a flowering of lodge activity, as well as that of many other groups. Masonic activity, stripped of its republican theories and firmly controlled by a Grand Master appointed by the Emperor, experienced a vigorous unity never seen since. It is thought that every regiment, every garrison and every town had its own Lodge. The evidence provided by the sumptuous tokens of the period shows that these lodges were rich and influential. The symbolism is sophisticated, without comparison with later periods, which were much more conventional, or even bland or stodgy, at the beginning of the 20th century. Freemasonry counted over a thousand lodges spread across the country's one hundred and thirty departments, and more than sixty thousand brethren.
