Free French Cross of Lorraine & Gallic Rooster Chantecler 1 Franc French Cameroon Authentic Coin Money for Jewelry (Le Coq Francais) 1943

Free French Cross of Lorraine & Gallic Rooster Chantecler 1 Franc French Cameroon Authentic Coin Money for Jewelry and Craft Making (Le Coq Francais) (Free France) (Charles de Gaulle) (Resistance)

Reverse: Free French "Cross of Lorraine".
"In 1940 French Cameroon rallied to the Free French when General Philippe Leclerc landed at Douala, capturing it on 27 August and then moved to Yaounde, where the pro-Vichy France governor Richard Brunot was forced to hand over the civil administration of French Cameroon."-Wikipedia
Lettering: LIBERTE·EGALITE
·FRATERNITE·
1 FC
HONNEUR PATRIE
1943

Obverse: Gallic Rooster left, monogrammed shield top right
Lettering: RF
CAMEROUN FRANÇAIS

Features
Issuer French Cameroon
Type Standard circulation coin
Year 1943
Value 1 Franc (1)
Currency Franc (1922-1945)
Composition Bronze
Weight 5.550 g
Diameter 25 mm
Shape Round
Technique Milled
Orientation Coin alignment ↑↓
Demonetized Yes
Number N# 8319
References KM# 5

Wikipedia:
The Cross of Lorraine (French: Croix de Lorraine), known as Cross of Anjou in the 16th century, is a heraldic two-barred cross, consisting of a vertical line crossed by two shorter horizontal bars. In most renditions, the horizontal bars are "graded" with the upper bar being the shorter...

The Cross of Lorraine came from the Kingdom of Hungary to the Duchy of Lorraine. In Hungary, Béla III was the first monarch to use the two-barred cross as the symbol of royal power in the late 12th century. He probably adopted it from the Byzantine Empire, according to historian Pál Engel. The cross is a variant of the Latin cross on which Christ was crucified. The wider lower arm is the crosspiece of the cross itself. The narrower upper arm is the Latin inscription INRI (Latin: Iēsus Nazarēnus, Rēx Iūdaeōrum; English, "Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews"), which in John 19:19, was fastened to the cross.

Symbol of France
The Cross of Lorraine is an emblem of Lorraine in eastern France. Between 1871 and 1918 (and again between 1940 and 1944), the north-eastern quarter of Lorraine (the Moselle department) was annexed to Germany, along with Alsace. During that period the Cross served as a rallying point for French ambitions to recover its lost provinces. This historical significance lent it considerable weight as a symbol of French patriotism. During World War II, Capitaine de corvette Thierry d'Argenlieu suggested the Cross of Lorraine as the symbol of the Free French Forces led by Charles de Gaulle...

The Cross was displayed on the flags of Free French warships, and the fuselages of Free French aircraft. The medal of the Order of Liberation bears the Cross of Lorraine.

De Gaulle himself is memorialised by a 43-metre (141 ft) high Cross of Lorraine in his home village of Colombey-les-Deux-Églises.

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Wikipedia:
French Cameroon or French Cameroons was a League of Nations Mandate territory in Central Africa. It now forms part of the independent country of Cameroon.

Beginnings
The area of present-day Cameroon came under German sovereignty during the "Scramble for Africa" at the end of the 19th century. The German protectorate commenced in 1884 with a treaty with local chiefs in the Douala area, in particular Ndumbe Lobe Bell, then gradually it was extended to the interior. In 1911, France ceded parts of its territory to German Cameroon, as a result of the Agadir Crisis, the new territory being henceforth known as New Cameroon (German: Neukamerun). During World War I, the German protectorate was occupied by British and French troops, and later mandated to each country by the League of Nations in 1922. The British mandate was known as British Cameroons and the French mandate as French Cameroon (French: Cameroun). Following World War II each of the mandate territories was made a United Nations Trust Territory. An insurrection headed by Ruben Um Nyobé and the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC) erupted in 1955, strongly repressed by the French Fourth Republic. French Cameroon became independent as the Republic of Cameroon in January 1960 and in October 1961 the southern part of British Cameroons joined it to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon. The Muslim northern part of British Cameroons had opted for union with Nigeria in May the same year. The conflict with the UPC lasted until the 1970s.

Interwar period
After World War I, French Cameroon was not integrated to French Equatorial Africa (AEF) but made a "Commissariat de la République autonome" under French mandate. France enacted an assimilationist policy with the aim of having German presence forgotten, by teaching French on all of the territory and imposing French law, while pursuing the "indigenous politics", which consisted of keeping control of the judiciary system and of the police, while tolerating traditional law issues. The colonial administration also followed public health policies (Eugène Jamot did some research on sleeping sickness) as well as encouraging Francophony. Charles Atangana, designated paramount chief by the Germans, and others local chiefs were invited to France, and Paul Soppo Priso named president of the JEUCAFRA (Cameroon French Youth). Charles Atangana would visit the 1931 Paris Colonial Exhibition and attend the 1935 French Colonial Conference. France took care to make disappear all remains of German presence and aimed at eradicating any trace of Germanophilia. French racism became prevalent throughout the colony rather quickly, and anti-French sentiment followed and would be strengthened in the late 1940s.

World War II
In 1940 French Cameroon rallied to the Free French when General Philippe Leclerc landed at Douala, capturing it on 27 August and then moved to Yaounde, where the pro-Vichy France governor Richard Brunot was forced to hand over the civil administration of French Cameroon.

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Wikipedia:
During the times of Ancient Rome, Suetonius, in The Twelve Caesars, noticed that, in Latin, rooster (gallus) and Gauls (Gallus) were homonyms.

Its association with France dates back from the Middle Ages and is due to the play on words in Latin between Gallus, meaning an inhabitant of Gaul, and gallus, meaning rooster, or cockerel. Its use, by the enemies of France, dates to this period, originally a pun to make fun of the French, the association between the rooster and the Gauls/French was developed by the kings of France for the strong Christian symbol that the rooster represents: prior to being arrested, Jesus predicted that Peter would deny him three times before the rooster crowed on the following morning. At the rooster's crowing, Peter remembered Jesus's words. Its crowing at the dawning of each new morning made it a symbol of the daily victory of light over darkness and the triumph of good over evil. It is also an emblem of the Christian's attitude of watchfulness and readiness for the sudden return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the final judgment of humankind. That is why, during the Renaissance, the rooster became a symbol of France as a Catholic state and became a popular Christian image on weather vanes, also known as weathercocks.

The popularity of the Gallic rooster as a national personification faded away until its resurgence during the French Revolution (1789). The republican historiography completely modified the traditional perception of the origins of France. Until then, the royal historiography dated the origins of France back to the baptism of Clovis I in 496, the "first Christian king of France". The republicans rejected this royalist and Christian origin of the country and trace the origins of France back to the ancient Gaul. Although purely apocryphal, the rooster became the personification of the early inhabitants of France, the Gauls.

The Gallic rooster, colloquially named Chantecler, had been a national emblem ever since, especially during the Third Republic. The rooster was featured on the reverse of French 20-franc gold pieces from 1899 to 1914. After World War I it was depicted on countless war memorials.