Everybody likes Zepps! 1929 round the world flight.

STLNATS

I liked the recent thread of the early Graf Zeppelin medals and thought I'd share a few medals associated with the 1929 World Flight of the Graf Zeppelin. The first two are from the Prussian mint. The silver is crown sized, 36mm, and in 90% silver. The busts on the obverse are Zeppelin, Duerr (airship designer) and Eckener (manager of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin during the inter-war years and commander of the airship). The reverse features a globe including the key stops for the flight with arrival and departure date. There are two sets of dates for Lakehurst, since the flight technically started there with the return flight of the Zeppelin's 1929 1st North American Flight. The first 1929 North American flight had been scheduled for May, but was delayed after an emergency landing and was rescheduled immediately before the start of the World Flight.



The gold piece is about the size of a 20 mark coin, I think I've seen this in the larger crown size as well. It has the portraits of Zeppelin and Eckener on the obverse and the dates 1898-1928, commemorating the 30th anniversary of the assembly of the first Zeppelin in 1898. The reverse has a scene of the airship flying over the ocean with the legend “WeltFahrt August 1929” and L Z 129 the airship’s registration number.



The third medal is also 36 mm but was struck at the Bavarian mint. The obverse again features Captain Eckener. The reverse shows a Zeppelin flying over a globe with the key stops listed along the outside of the medal. With the arrows it show the flight starting in Friedrichshafen (where the German Zepps were based) flying to Tokyo, LA and Lakehurst before returning to its base.



Medals are only one category of a wide range of collectibles associated with Zeppelins. Of course there are the 3 and 5 mark coins, but perhaps most popular are flight covers with appropriate cachets, stamps and cancellations. Here are two examples. The first is a German cover which made the full flight from Friedrichshafen and franked with 14 marks, a substantial amount of money at the time. The other is a cover which originated in LA and addressed to Lakehurst.




Zeppies are fun!

Zohar

VERY NEAT !

I believe SaorAlba has something to add here

Zohar

SaorAlba

Just a note on the Led Zeppelin reference. Apparently the granddaughter of Count Von Zeppelin took offense to the band using that name, and while they were touring in 1970 in Denmark and Germany she litigated to force them to cease using the name. There is no subsequent information available, but obviously the band kept using the name. Who can forget the cover of their first album too with the Hindenburg going down in flames.

Here are the coins that the German mint released for circulation:





I do also have the Dr. Eckener/LZ-126/USS Los Angeles medal also, but haven't apparently loaded it to my website host.

theboz11

Nice pickup. Here is one I picked up a couple years ago.

OldEastside

Your right Zepps are cool

Steve

BillyKingsley

One-either- doesn't matter which- of the circulation issues is pretty much my "holy grail". Love it! I'll never be able to afford one though.

SaorAlba

An often overlooked part of the Zeppelin history is that to restart the Zeppelin programme in Germany - Zeppelins were prohibited under the Treaty of Versailles, Dr Hugo Eckener ingratiated himself with powerful figures in the US Navy with a proposal to build an airship for the US Navy. This proposal was agreed upon, and the US then permitted the civilian usage of Zeppelins in Germany once more. The ship built for the US Navy was the LZ-126, when it arrived in the USA to the Lakehurst Naval Station it was re-christened as the USS Los Angeles. Curiously through the whole US Navy airship program that began with the arrival of the USS Los Angeles in 1924 and continuing until this particular airships dismantling in 1939, the USS Los Angeles had a commendable safety and operation record. The other airships, all built in the USA, met inglorious ends with crashes.



This medal commemorates Dr. Eckener and the flight to America of the LZ-126/USS Los Angeles. This was the first transatlantic crossing by an airship, and also the first non-stop east west flight by an aircraft of any kind.

The Zeppelin history is so much more than the tragic end with the Hindenburg disaster. For a quarter of a century Zeppelins were operated for civilian usage and had a respectable safety record in an era when fixed wing aircraft did not. Airships were operated with regularity from the time of the round the world flight in 1929 on up to 1937 - mostly flights to Brazil. Personalities such as Dr. Eckener no doubt contributed to that enviable safety record. By late 1936 and early 1937 he was falling out of favour with the Nazi government in Germany and was being pushed aside in Zeppelin Reederei. One could thus conjecture that by taking him out of the day to day management of the programme, and politicising the Zeppelins with the swastika flags and doing tours of Germany that the Nazis could well have contributed to the subsequent disaster and ending of the programme.