A particularly fine example of the silver medal struck to commemorate the sailing of the Uranie expedition from Toulon in 1817 under Louis de Freycinet. The voyage, which would last four years, was organised by the French government to make observations on geography, magnetism and meteorology, and became noteworthy for its natural history discoveries.

A particularly fine example of the silver medal struck to commemorate the sailing of the Uranie expedition from Toulon in 1817 under Louis de Freycinet. The voyage, which would last four years, was organised by the French government to make observations on geography, magnetism and meteorology, and became noteworthy for its natural history discoveries.

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 detailed lettering on the obverse 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 this side of the medal is signed Puymaurin. The reverse of the medal shows the bust of Louis XVIII, designed by F. Andrieu.