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1826, France (2nd Kingdom). Silver "Royal Natural Gas Lighting Company" Medal.

Medallist: Galle Mint Year: 1826 Condition: Light edge-hits, small scratches and digs, otherwise a nicely toned XF-AU! Denomination:  Medal - Royal Natural Gas Lighting Company (founded per royal decree on 18th of December 1822) - On the usage of natural gos in the crafts, trade and industry! Weight: 19.25gm Diameter: 37mm Material: Silver

Obverse: Nude male allegoric figure (Hercules?) seated on a package of carge, holding hammer, leaning on anvil to his left and holding cornucopia with his right hand. Fire burning from a high oven in bakcground, symbols chemistry, trade and industry around. Exergue: AUX ARTS UTILES. 1826.   Reverse: Inscription in seven lines. Legend: COMPAGNIE ROYALE D'ECLAIRAGE PAR LE GAZ. / ORDONANCE DU ROY 18. DECEMBER 1822.

Natural gas (also called fossil gas) is a naturally occurring hydrocarbon gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, but commonly including varying amounts of other higher alkanes, and sometimes a small percentage of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, or helium. It is formed when layers of decomposing plant and animal matter are exposed to intense heat and pressure under the surface of the Earth over millions of years. The energy that the plants originally obtained from the sun is stored in the form of chemical bonds in the gas.

Natural gas is a non-renewable hydrocarbon used as a source of energy for heating, cooking, and electricity generation. It is also used as a fuel for vehicles and as a chemical feedstock in the manufacture of plastics and other commercially important organic chemicals.

Natural gas has a complicated effect on climate change; it itself is a greenhouse gas, and it releases carbon dioxide when burned. However, natural gas use often supplants coal use, which is far more environmentally damaging, leading to lower net carbon dioxide emissions in countries such as the US.

Natural gas is found in deep underground rock formations or associated with other hydrocarbon reservoirs in coal beds and as methane clathrates. Petroleum is another resource and fossil fuel found close to and with natural gas. Most natural gas was created over time by two mechanisms: biogenic and thermogenic. Biogenic gas is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, landfills, and shallow sediments. Deeper in the earth, at greater temperature and pressure, thermogenic gas is created from buried organic material.

In petroleum production, gas is sometimes burned as flare gas. Before natural gas can be used as a fuel, most, but not all, must be processed to remove impurities, including water, to meet the specifications of marketable natural gas. The by-products of this processing include: ethane, propane, butanes, pentanes, and higher molecular weight hydrocarbons, hydrogen sulfide (which may be converted into pure sulfur), carbon dioxide, water vapor, and sometimes helium and nitrogen.

Natural gas is sometimes informally referred to simply as "gas", especially when compared to other energy sources such as oil or coal. However, it is not to be confused with gasoline, especially in North America, where the term gasoline is often shortened in colloquial usage to gas.