Original Item: One-of-a-kind. The Army of India Medal was the last of the medals authorized in connection with the Napoleonic Wars. The East India Company instituted and paid for the minting of the medal in March 1851 to award surviving veterans of the battles and campaigns in India and Burma between 1803 and 1826. This example has the “Wyon” profile of Queen Victoria on the obverse and seated Victory beside a palm tree on the reverse.
The reverse is the style with a short hyphen between 1799 and 1826 with W.W. in the exergue. The rim is unnamed. The medal is mounted with one clasp, AVA, on a correct, pale blue, 32mm-wide ribbon. Only about 2,294 medals with the AVA clasp were awarded, making this one of the more common of the India Medal arrangements, though still very desirable as one of the few medals issued for Napoleonic Service. Planchet is very bright with only perimeter tarnish.