A scarce example of the silver issue of the medal struck to commemorate the sailing of the Uranie for Australia and the Pacific in 1817 under Louis de Freycinet. The design of the Freycinet medal had an interesting after-life, appearing as an engraving on the title-pages of several volumes of the official published account of the voyage.

A scarce example of the silver issue of the medal struck to commemorate the sailing of the Uranie for Australia and the Pacific in 1817 under Louis de Freycinet. The design of the Freycinet medal had an interesting after-life, appearing as an engraving on the title-pages of several volumes of the official published account of the voyage.

The Uranie landed at Shark Bay on the West Coast of Australia, on 12 September 1818, where an observatory was set up. After visiting Timor and the Sandwich Islands they reached Port Jackson in November 1818. They left on Boxing Day that year on a course for Cape Horn but on 13 February 1820 the ship was wrecked off the Falkland Islands. However all the crew and most of the records of the voyage and natural history specimens were saved and the voyage was completed on the Physicienne.

The voyage had been organised by the French government to make observations on geography, magnetism and meteorology, and became noteworthy for its natural history discoveries. This scientific bent is reflected in the detailed lettering on the obverse of this medal, which has the main caption "Hemisphere Austral. Physique Astronomie", and also notes that Freycinet's voyage was commissioned by the two most important French naval figures of his day, Louis-Antoine d'Artois de Bourbon, Duc d'Angoulême, then serving as Amiral de France, and the Vicomte du Bouchage, Ministre de la Marine.

The design for the obverse of the medal is signed Puymaurin, while the reverse of the medal shows the bust of Louis XVIII, designed by Andrieu. Jean-Pierre Marcassus de Puymaurin (1757-1841), was a French chemist, medallist, and politician who lived and worked in Toulouse. He served with distinction under both Napoleon and the Bourbon Restoration, becoming Director of the Royal Mint of Medals in 1816. Bertrand Andrieu (1761-1822), was an engraver from Bordeaux often associated with medals of the Napoleonic era and after.