"Wrong........................................ bars were attached see picture of a boer war medal from my collection. If the bars are loose on the ribbon as long as not tailors copies and the entitlement is correct some people can live with that. Sometimes the bars were not attached, but personally I wouldn’t buy a QSA with loose bars."
That's a bit dogmatic, Adam.
In many, probably most cases the bars were attached, as you say but in some cases I've seen over the years, especially for medals with later bars, the bars were not attached and the provenance strongly suggests that they never were. As you suggest, the medal may have been issued without the bars - errors did occur, especially when so many thousands of QSAs t went out of the Mint.
It is also the case that individuals added bars they thought they were entitled to, 'even though those miserable sods in Whitehall say no'! A good example of that would be a sailor from HMS Terpischore who didn't get the two bars - perhaps never got ashore - but decided that if his mates had it so should he. Makes it very nice for Paul that you are able to get the documentation that AB Amy was entitled to the 2 bars. I have also seen both wire and 'proper' rivets used on both 'entitled to' bars and 'unentitled' bars, and it seemed to have little to do with when they were issued. Hard to make any 'always' or 'never' statements about QSAs!
That's a bit dogmatic, Adam.
In many, probably most cases the bars were attached, as you say but in some cases I've seen over the years, especially for medals with later bars, the bars were not attached and the provenance strongly suggests that they never were. As you suggest, the medal may have been issued without the bars - errors did occur, especially when so many thousands of QSAs t went out of the Mint.
It is also the case that individuals added bars they thought they were entitled to, 'even though those miserable sods in Whitehall say no'! A good example of that would be a sailor from HMS Terpischore who didn't get the two bars - perhaps never got ashore - but decided that if his mates had it so should he. Makes it very nice for Paul that you are able to get the documentation that AB Amy was entitled to the 2 bars. I have also seen both wire and 'proper' rivets used on both 'entitled to' bars and 'unentitled' bars, and it seemed to have little to do with when they were issued. Hard to make any 'always' or 'never' statements about QSAs!
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