Zeppelin LZ 126 Amerikafahrt 1924 Commemorative Medal Eckener ZR III

A commemorative table medal marking the 1924 transatlantic delivery flight of the German rigid airship LZ 126, the vessel that entered United States Navy service as USS Los Angeles (ZR-3). The medal is approximately 1.5 inches (38 mm) in diameter. The obverse bears a facing bust portrait of the flight's commander with the legend Dr. Hugo Eckener flanking the head. The reverse is inscribed Amerikafahrt des LZ 126 ZR III (America voyage of the LZ 126, ZR III) with the date 1924, above a relief scene of the airship in flight over its shed and surrounding countryside, and below a full timetable of the crossing. That timetable records the stages of the journey: 12 October, 6:35, departure Friedrichshafen (Abfahrt Friedrichshafen); 3:30, left Europe (Europa verlassen); 13 October, 3:35, the Azores island of Fayal (Azoreninsel Fayal); 14 October, 12:00, Sable Island; 15 October, 10:00, Boston; 1:29, New York; 3:11, Lakehurst. The medal appears to be struck in white metal or silver, with a warm tone; the exact composition is not confirmed from examination and no fineness mark is legible in the images. A small nub at the upper reverse edge indicates the piece may once have carried a suspension mount.

The flight this medal commemorates was among the defining achievements of the interwar airship era. LZ 126 was constructed at the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance, in the former Kingdom of Württemberg, to satisfy reparations obligations imposed on Germany after the First World War. Rather than see the Zeppelin firm dismantled, its managing director Hugo Eckener secured an arrangement by which the company would build a large rigid airship for the United States Navy, keeping the works and its expertise alive. On 12 October 1924 Eckener personally commanded the new ship out of Friedrichshafen on its delivery flight across the Atlantic, and after roughly eighty-one hours in the air it reached the naval air station at Lakehurst, New Jersey, on 15 October. The crossing was a sensation on both sides of the ocean, and upon acceptance the airship was commissioned into the United States Navy as USS Los Angeles with the hull number ZR-3, going on to become the most successful and longest-serving rigid airship in American service.

Hugo Eckener (1868–1954) was the central figure of German airship aviation after the death of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Trained as a doctor of psychology, he came to the Zeppelin enterprise as a journalist and critic, was won over, and rose to lead the firm through its greatest years. He commanded or directed the epochal voyages of the later Graf Zeppelin, including its 1929 flight around the world, and became an international celebrity and unofficial ambassador of German engineering. His steady, cautious command style was credited with the airships' remarkable safety record under his direction. In the 1930s Eckener's open opposition to the National Socialist regime saw him sidelined and his name suppressed in German publicity, which lends the earlier commemorative pieces bearing his portrait an added historical poignancy. The 1924 delivery flight was his first great transatlantic triumph and the one that rescued the Zeppelin company from extinction.

The medal belongs to a substantial family of Zeppelin commemoratives produced in Germany during the airship years, when firms such as the Nuremberg medallists struck pieces marking each notable voyage for a public that followed the ships with fascination. The America flight of 1924 generated several such issues in varying metals and sizes. As documentary objects they preserve, in struck relief, the precise itinerary and personalities of flights that were front-page news in their day and that now stand as landmarks in the history of aviation.

Condition is honest and consistent with age and handling. The relief on both faces is complete and the legends fully legible, though the surfaces show scattered toning, darkening in the fields, and light contact marks and rim nicks from circulation as a pocket-piece or keepsake. The apparent mount nub at the top of the reverse is noted above. The portrait and airship reliefs retain good definition despite the toning.

For collectors the appeal is threefold: the subject is one of the most celebrated flights of the airship age; the medal names and portrays Hugo Eckener, a figure of the first rank in aviation history; and the reverse timetable makes the piece a self-contained record of a specific historic voyage. It draws interest from Zeppelin and aviation collectors, from those who pursue Eckener personality material, and from medal collectors of the interwar German series. Confirmation of the metal would refine its standing, as silver strikings command a premium over the base-metal issues.

A commemorative table medal marking the 1924 transatlantic delivery flight of the German rigid airship LZ 126, the vessel that entered United States Navy service as USS Los Angeles (ZR-3). The medal is approximately 1.5 inches (38 mm) in diameter. The obverse bears a facing bust portrait of the flight's commander with the legend Dr. Hugo Eckener flanking the head. The reverse is inscribed Amerikafahrt des LZ 126 ZR III (America voyage of the LZ 126, ZR III) with the date 1924, above a relief scene of the airship in flight over its shed and surrounding countryside, and below a full timetable of the crossing. That timetable records the stages of the journey: 12 October, 6:35, departure Friedrichshafen (Abfahrt Friedrichshafen); 3:30, left Europe (Europa verlassen); 13 October, 3:35, the Azores island of Fayal (Azoreninsel Fayal); 14 October, 12:00, Sable Island; 15 October, 10:00, Boston; 1:29, New York; 3:11, Lakehurst. The medal appears to be struck in white metal or silver, with a warm tone; the exact composition is not confirmed from examination and no fineness mark is legible in the images. A small nub at the upper reverse edge indicates the piece may once have carried a suspension mount.

The flight this medal commemorates was among the defining achievements of the interwar airship era. LZ 126 was constructed at the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance, in the former Kingdom of Württemberg, to satisfy reparations obligations imposed on Germany after the First World War. Rather than see the Zeppelin firm dismantled, its managing director Hugo Eckener secured an arrangement by which the company would build a large rigid airship for the United States Navy, keeping the works and its expertise alive. On 12 October 1924 Eckener personally commanded the new ship out of Friedrichshafen on its delivery flight across the Atlantic, and after roughly eighty-one hours in the air it reached the naval air station at Lakehurst, New Jersey, on 15 October. The crossing was a sensation on both sides of the ocean, and upon acceptance the airship was commissioned into the United States Navy as USS Los Angeles with the hull number ZR-3, going on to become the most successful and longest-serving rigid airship in American service.

Hugo Eckener (1868–1954) was the central figure of German airship aviation after the death of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Trained as a doctor of psychology, he came to the Zeppelin enterprise as a journalist and critic, was won over, and rose to lead the firm through its greatest years. He commanded or directed the epochal voyages of the later Graf Zeppelin, including its 1929 flight around the world, and became an international celebrity and unofficial ambassador of German engineering. His steady, cautious command style was credited with the airships' remarkable safety record under his direction. In the 1930s Eckener's open opposition to the National Socialist regime saw him sidelined and his name suppressed in German publicity, which lends the earlier commemorative pieces bearing his portrait an added historical poignancy. The 1924 delivery flight was his first great transatlantic triumph and the one that rescued the Zeppelin company from extinction.

The medal belongs to a substantial family of Zeppelin commemoratives produced in Germany during the airship years, when firms such as the Nuremberg medallists struck pieces marking each notable voyage for a public that followed the ships with fascination. The America flight of 1924 generated several such issues in varying metals and sizes. As documentary objects they preserve, in struck relief, the precise itinerary and personalities of flights that were front-page news in their day and that now stand as landmarks in the history of aviation.

Condition is honest and consistent with age and handling. The relief on both faces is complete and the legends fully legible, though the surfaces show scattered toning, darkening in the fields, and light contact marks and rim nicks from circulation as a pocket-piece or keepsake. The apparent mount nub at the top of the reverse is noted above. The portrait and airship reliefs retain good definition despite the toning.

For collectors the appeal is threefold: the subject is one of the most celebrated flights of the airship age; the medal names and portrays Hugo Eckener, a figure of the first rank in aviation history; and the reverse timetable makes the piece a self-contained record of a specific historic voyage. It draws interest from Zeppelin and aviation collectors, from those who pursue Eckener personality material, and from medal collectors of the interwar German series. Confirmation of the metal would refine its standing, as silver strikings command a premium over the base-metal issues.