Item number: M525

Reference number: Borna Barac IV#43-44

Year: AD 1880-1922

Material: Silver-Gilt, Enamel

Size: 76.2 x 19 x 3.5 mm

Weight: 4.25 g

Provenance: La Galerie Numismatique 2025

This is a miniature version of the Order of the Liberator (Orden del Libertador), conferred by the historical United States of Venezuela (Estados Unidos de Venezuela), which is also known for historical reasons as the Order / Decoration of the Bust of the Liberator (Orden / Condecoración del Busto del Libertador) or the Order of the Bust of Bolívar (Orden del Busto del Bolívar). It was awarded to individuals who rendered significant service to Venezuela or to humanity at large. The piece presented here is a miniature version, intended to be worn with formal civilian dress (such as evening tails) rather than a military uniform, and was typically private-commissioned by the recipient.

The central obverse cover of the insignia is oval, featuring a high-relief left-profile bust of Simón Bolívar, the Liberator of Latin America. The portrait depicts Bolívar dressed in the major-general uniform of the Republic of Gran Colombia, with his left hand tucked inside his breast pocket. Surrounding the central relief is a band of blue enamel inscribed with the words “SIMON BOLIVAR” in gold lettering, adorned with golden laurel branches below. A beaded rim encircles the oval cover, from which twenty-eight rays of alternating lengths radiate outward to form a multi-pointed starburst.

The original reverse cover has detached, and its appearance is represented here schematically. The design of the reverse medallion portrays the coat of arms of the United States of Venezuela. Although the state coat of arms underwent several revisions over time, its core composition remained largely consistent. At its centre lies a shield whose upper-left section features a sheaf of wheat, with the number of ears corresponding to the states of the federation at the time. The upper-right section is decorated with a wreath of laurel enclosing arms and flags, symbolizing victory. The lower section merges into a third field depicting an untamed white horse galloper to the viewer’s right, representing independence and liberty. Atop the shield rest two downward-pointing cornucopias pouring forth an abundance of produce, symbolizing prosperity and wealth. Beneath the shield, a branch of coffee leaves and a stem of sugar cane are bound together by a ribbon. The loose ends of the ribbon loop back and forth, bearing inscriptions: the central band displays Venezuela’s traditional motto, “Dios y Federación” (“God and Federation”), which was occasionally substituted with the official name of the state; the left band reads “5 de julio de 1811” alongside “Independencia” (“Independence”); and the right band displays the date of a significant constitutional amendment of the period alongside “Libertad” (“Liberty”).

A metallic ball-and-suspension-ring assembly at the top secures the insignia to its ribbon. Hallmarks are faintly discernible on the spherical fitting, though they are too worn to permit definitive identification; these likely represent precious metal fineness marks or maker’s marks. Regarding the rare depiction of Bolívar with his hand tucked inside his pocket, it is reported that only two manufacturers—one based in New York and the other in France—produced full-sized decorations of this specific pattern, making miniature versions even more difficult to verify.

The ribbon of this order was not assigned a fixed color scheme in statutory texts, which referred to it merely as a “tricolour ribbon”. It is widely accepted to be a ribbon divided into three equal vertical stripes of red, blue, and yellow from left to right, as evidenced by contemporary photographs of recipients. Nevertheless, a small number of surviving specimens feature ribbons with equal stripes of yellow, white, and orange, the exact origin of which remains a subject for further research.

As Venezuela’s highest national honour, the spiritual origins of the Order of the Liberator (Orden del Libertador) trace back to AD 1813, when Simón Bolívar instituted the Order of the Liberators (Orden de los Libertadores) following the Admirable Campaign (Campaña Admirable) to reward veterans of the War of Independence. That early decoration functioned more like a circular medal. Following the end of the independence struggle and Bolívar’s death in AD 1830, the Medal of Honour of the Liberator (Medalla de Honor del Libertador, colloquially termed the “Bust of Bolívar”), issued by the Peruvian Congress in AD 1825, became one of the few honours bearing Bolívar’s likeness that could be worn on military dress. Its widespread popularity among Venezuelan recipients prompted the Venezuelan government to establish its own equivalent national distinction.

In AD 1854, President José Gregorio Monagas issued a decree creating the Medal of Distinction with the Bust of the Liberator (Medalla de Distinción con el busto del Libertador), establishing the formal national foundation for the order. However, imprecise phrasing in the AD 1854 decree led subsequent legislation to erroneously characterize the decoration as having been “created by the Congress of Peru and adopted by Venezuela”. This misconception was codified into law in AD 1880 when Antonio Guzmán Blanco formally established the five classes of the award alongside the title “Bust of the Liberator” (Busto del Libertador), a precedent maintained through subsequent revisions in AD 1881, AD 1915, and the AD 1922 reforms under Juan Vicente Gómez (the AD 1922 decree officially standardizing the title to Orden del Libertador).

Despite these legal misattributions and vague statutory specifications—which led European and local mints to produce a rich variety of manufacturing variants—the core design featuring Bolívar’s profile bust, the blue-enamelled motto ring, and the radiant rays of the insignia (Venera) and breast star (Placa) remained an enduring republican tradition for over 130 years. It was not until AD 1996, during the presidency of Hugo Chávez, that a new decree repealed the earlier legislation and corrected this century-old historical error by omitting any erroneous attribution of origin. However, in AD 2010, the government enacted the Law on the Decoration of the Order of the Liberators and Liberatresses of Venezuela (Ley sobre la Condecoración Orden Libertadores y Libertadoras de Venezuela), opting to revive the original AD 1813 starburst design and completely replace the traditional insignia, thereby thoroughly transforming the aesthetic identity of an honour that had embodied 156 years of republican history.

Simón Bolívar was born in present-day Venezuela. From AD 1810 onwards, taking advantage of the French invasion of Spain during the Napoleonic Wars, he engaged in the Latin American wars of independence, liberating various colonial territories alongside José de San Martín in a campaign that spanned the continent from north to south, for which both men are revered across Latin America as national heroes to this day. In AD 1819, Bolívar defeated Spanish forces at the Battle of Boyacá (Batalla de Boyacá) and subsequently established the Republic of Gran Colombia (Gran Colombia), which inherited the territories of the Viceroyalty of New Granada to become the largest nation in South America at the time, aiming to unite all former Spanish colonies across the continent. However, years of continuous warfare, compounded by political factionalism between federalists and regionalists, sparked the Paez Rebellion (La Cosiata) in AD 1826, bringing Venezuela to the brink of secession. That same year, Bolívar convened the Congress of Panama in an effort to forge a pan-American alliance among Latin American nations, though no consensus was reached. Following Bolívar’s death in AD 1830, Gran Colombia ultimately dissolved.

物件編號: M525

參考書目編號: Borna Barac IV#43-44

年代: 公元 1880-1922 年

材質: 銀鍍金、琺瑯

尺寸: 76.2 x 19 x 3.5 mm

重量: 4.25 g

來源: La Galerie Numismatique 2025

這是一枚由歷史上的委內瑞拉合眾國（Estados Unidos de Venezuela）所頒發的「解放者勳章」（Orden del Libertador），由於歷史原因，又稱為「解放者胸像勳章」（Orden / Condecoración del Busto del Libertador）或「玻利瓦胸像勳章」（Orden del Busto del Bolívar）。頒予對委內瑞拉甚或全人類有重大功績者。此章為迷你版，用以著非軍服正裝（例如燕尾服）時配戴，多為獲頒者自行訂做。

章體正面中央上蓋為橢圓形，浮雕處為拉丁美洲解放者西蒙·玻利瓦（Simón Bolívar）的左側胸像。描繪身著大哥倫比亞共和國少將軍服的西蒙·玻利瓦，左手置於胸前口袋之內。外圍環繞著藍色琺瑯，上面刻有金字 「SIMON BOLIVAR」，下方帶有金色月桂枝葉。圓蓋邊為一圈珠點。周圍為多角放射狀的二十八道星芒，長短相間。

背面圓蓋脫落，僅有圖片示意。圓蓋圖樣為委內瑞拉合眾國國徽。國徽的樣式經多次修改，但基本形制差別不大。中央為盾徽，左上象限為一束麥穗，麥穗數量與當時聯邦的州數相同。右上象限飾以纏繞月桂花環的紋章和旗幟，象徵勝利。下方兩個象限統合為第三部分，描繪一匹不馴的白馬，向觀者右側奔馳，象徵獨立和自由。盾徽上方為一對豐饒之角，開口向下，將各種作物傾倒而出，象徵富裕與多產。盾徽下方為一根咖啡枝葉和一支甘蔗莖頂的葉部，以飄帶相繫。飄帶餘部來回盤繞，其上分別刻有以下文字：中央為委內瑞拉的傳統格言「Dios y Federación」，即「上帝與聯邦」，一些時期可能改為國名；左側為「1811年7月5日」、「Independencia」（獨立）；右側為「（當時政權重要修憲日期）」、「Libertad」（自由）。

頂部金屬球狀與懸掛環結構，用於將章體連接至綬帶。球狀結構上隱約可見戳記，但無法進一步辨識，可能是貴金屬含量標示或製造商標記。但就肖像「手插胸袋」的罕見圖樣而言，據聞僅有紐約和法國的兩家製造商曾製作過本章的正章，迷你版則更加難以查證。

該勳章的綬帶並未規定顏色，法條中僅以「三色綬帶」表述。一般認為是由左自右紅、藍、黃色等分的三色色帶，近代獲頒者的留影足資證明。但此外，也有少數綬帶為黃、白、橙等分設計的勳章存世，詳情待考。

委內瑞拉「解放者勳章」（Orden del Libertador）作為該國最高級別的國家榮譽，其精神源頭可追溯至公元1813年西蒙·玻利瓦（Simón Bolívar）在「奇蹟戰役」（Campaña Admirable）後親自設立的「解放者勳章」（Orden de los Libertadores），用以表彰參與獨立戰爭的功臣，該勳章更接近獎章，呈圓形。隨著獨立戰爭結束與玻利瓦於公元1830年逝世，祕魯國會曾於公元1825年頒發的「解放者榮譽勳章」（Medalla de Honor del Libertador，口語常稱「玻利瓦胸像」）成為當時少數能在軍服上配戴玻利瓦肖像的勳獎，並廣受獲頒的委內瑞拉人歡迎，這促使委內瑞拉政府意識到必須創立屬於本國的同類榮譽。

公元1854年，何塞·格雷戈里奧·莫納加斯（José Gregorio Monagas）總統頒布法令創立「帶有解放者胸像的傑出勳章」（Medalla de Distinción con el busto del Libertador），正式奠定了該勳章的本土制度基礎。然而，公元1854年法令在文字表達上的不嚴謹，導致後續立法產生了將該勳章誤認為「由祕魯國會創立並由委內瑞拉採納」。這一謬誤隨後在公元1880年安東尼奧·古斯曼·布蘭科（Antonio Guzmán Blanco）正式確立五個等級與「解放者胸像」（Busto del Libertador）名稱時被寫入法條，並沿用至公元1881、1915及1922年胡安·比森特·戈麥斯（Juan Vicente Gómez）改革時期（公元1922年法令亦正式統一名稱為 Orden del Libertador）。

儘管法律歸因存在瑕疵，且早期法令對規格描述的模糊造成歐洲與在地各大造幣廠製作出極其複雜豐富的變體，但其以玻利瓦側影胸像、藍底金字環帶與放射星芒為核心的章體（Venera）與星章（Placa）經典造型，依然作為共和國傳統持續傳承了130多年。直到公元1996年烏戈·查維茲（Hugo Chávez）任內頒布新法令，才終於廢除舊法並透過刪除起源敘述糾正了這項長達一世紀的歷史錯誤；然而在公元2010年，政府頒布《委內瑞拉解放者與女解放者勳章法》（Ley sobre la Condecoración Orden Libertadores y Libertadoras de Venezuela），選擇復刻公元1813年玻利瓦爾原始的星章設計並完全取代舊制，徹底改寫了這枚承載156年共和國歷史的傳統勳章樣貌。

西蒙·玻利瓦（Simón Bolívar）出生於今日的委內瑞拉，自公元1810年起趁著殖民母國西班牙遭拿破崙入侵，與聖馬丁一南一北共同解放拉丁美洲各個殖民地，至今仍被拉美各國尊奉為民族英雄。公元1819年玻利瓦在波亞卡戰役（Batalla de Boyacá）擊敗西軍，隨即成立繼承新格拉納達總督區領土的大哥倫比亞共和國（Gran Colombia），成為當時南美最大的國家，隨即試圖統一全南美前西班牙殖民地；然而，連年作戰加上聯邦主義與地方主義的政治鬥爭，導致公元1826年爆發委內瑞拉瀕臨獨立的帕埃斯事件（La Cosiata），同年玻利瓦在巴拿馬召開泛美會議試圖促成拉美諸國結盟，最終未達成共識，最終隨著玻利瓦於公元1830年逝世，大哥倫比亞共和國也隨之走向解體。