[Additional notes from H.E.GILLINGHAM's article "South American Decorations and War Medals" published by the American Numismatic Society 1932. Well worth obtaining a copy from the library if you wish to find out about those medals and ribbons shown being worn in the numerous portraits of officers during the 19th century.]

FIG.1. ECUADOR; Medal (Escudo] for Pichincha and Quito 1822. The medal shown is of silver, it was created on the 29th May 1822, by the Municipality de Quito for the troops under General Sucre who had beaten the Spanish forces on the side of Mount Pichincha at an elevation of 10,200 feet on May 24th which liberated the City of Quito. It was made in gold for the Officers and silver for the troops, being 35 mm in diameter with a twelve-armed star, the arms of which are interlaced with a laurel wreath. The obverse medallion has in the centre three mountain peaks surmounted by a radiant sun, above this is "LIBERTADOR DE QUITO" and below "ANO DE 1822". The reverse is inscribed "EL CABILDO DE QUITO". The Officers medal, which is shown in H.E. Gillingham's article is surmounted by an oval laurel wreath for the ribbon, which has equal stripes of red, blue and yellow. Other medals were issued by the various Governments for this Battle, as troops from Gran Colombia, Peru, Chile and Argentina were also present, for more details see the Gillingham's article.

FIG.2. PERU; Medal for Guerillas 1822. This medal was authorized by San Martin in a decree of October 1st 1821, it was issued to the guerilla forces that were in use, during San Martins stay in Peru [8/SEPT/1.92020/SEPT/1822]. Gillingham says decree dated Oct.lst.1822, while Rosa in his books on medals writes 1821 which is the one that I believe is correct, as San Martin resigned his Presidency in Sept. 1822. The medal is an oval in gold for officers and silver for other ranks, its size is 40x37 mm., edged with a laurel wreath on the upper half and inscribed on the obverse EL VALOR ES MI DIVISA, while on the reverse is a radiant sun encircled by A LAS PATRIDAS DE GUERRILLA. The ribbon is white and red, the Peruvian National colours.

The reason for my asking Col. Guaydier if he would allow me to reproduce some of his Latin American Medals that dealt with the Wars of Independence was that Ron Poulter and myself were at the time getting an Osprey "man at arms" booklet together and we thought that a few photographs of the actual medals would not come amiss. Alas space allocated for B/W photos was soon expended making these and others spare, so not to miss out on having them published I asked Col.Guaydier if they could be reproduced in El Dorado to which he answered in the affirmative. You may also like to know that the title of the Osprey book is "The Armies of Simon Bolivar and San Martin, the South American Wars of Independence" [or something like that] which will be out in March 1991, hope that you like it? [any mistakes in it they'll be mine].