ALERT - WW1 British Military Medals

[yellow]

There have in recent months been a number of WW1 Military Medals for sale on the net which are just "wrong". Examples noted by me include those named to yeomanry units and well collected infantry regiments.

The WW1 Military Medal, regardless of that fact if it was a re-issue was never handed to the recipient with large engraved, wide circular cut letters! Frankly at least one of these sellers in my opinion, should know the difference between impressed and engraved medals.

If you are purchasing a WW1 Military Medal I would suggest you become familiar with the correct impressed naming style and not get carried away with the paper work or how heroic the deed was which won the medal. Inspect the rim thoroughly by importing those images into a paint package like Photoshop and zooming in. If the images are not good enough request better ones. A good seller will always supply those at your request.

So far I have only seen these fake medals to British units. I would suggest you first look at this web site before making a purchase and make comparisons.

Vendors........the correct terminology your looking for is "named unofficial replacement".

http://www.northeastmedals.co.uk/bri...y_medal_GV.htm

[redline09]

thanks for the heads up.

its also worth googling medal lots before you buy. ive noticed groups for sale on dealers sites that make no mention of corrections to naming / damage which auction houses have stated when these medals were originally for sale.


(doing a search before you buy will probably put you off buying when you realize how much cheaper you could of got the same group, not long ago at auction)

[ROBB]

How about a photo of what you mean . Cheers Rob

[yellow]

How about a photo of what you mean . Cheers Rob

I would love to show photographs Robb but the person who is doing this may get upset and then start threatening the forum moderators.

I can only surmise the medals are from the same source and it would appear at the very least this person has made hundreds of pounds already. One single made 650 pounds! Also these MM's can be found mixed with other genuine WW1 medal groups, where the Military Medal is missing from the group. This creates a feeling of athenticity.

Impressed medals are very distinctive from engraved examples. There should always be a small lip and distortion around the letter where it has been struck into the medal. This is not present on engraved medals, instead the area around the engraving is flat.

The worrying thing is some of these medals have been artificially aged. So the distortion around the letters can be hard to spot if the rim is black from oxidisation.

Genuine Britsih WW1 Military medals are always impressed in 'thin' upright capitals.

There were a little over 100K Military Medals awarded during WW1, but with the ever increasing demand for these medals and some being sold for as much as two thousand pounds a group (e.g. Tank Corps) one can certainly appreciate why this medal has been targeted.

In my opinion these medals would not fool die hard WW1 medal collectors, its more about fooling the casual investor or just someone who wishes to obtain one example.

[A H]

Hello Yellow,

Please name him it might stop fellow forum members from being caught out.

I would recommend this book to any WW1 medal collector. It shows correctly named medals in great detail

http://www.amazon.co.uk/GREAT-WAR-ME.../dp/0952754444

[Don D.]

You can post images under Fair Use. If he doesn't like it he can come here and defend them.

[peter monahan]

Yellow

I take it then, that the web address at the bottom of your original represents a vendor who does describe his medals accurately?

Peter

[yellow]

Yellow

I take it then, that the web address at the bottom of your original represents a vendor who does describe his medals accurately?

Peter

Hi Peter,

Yes, the dealer who built that web site has no involvement in the handling of these medals and is a trusted source. I merely posted a link to his site to reference genuine examples.

Howard Williamson's book also shows some examples of the naming style for the MM and I would assume his latest book (yet to be released) will go into even greater detail.

In regards the medals themselves, because i have not yet handled a suspect example, it is thus hard to know if the medals are renamed or are unnamed copies with out measuring the diameter of the disc. From photographs it would appear the lip of the medal, which is usually damaged when the medal is erased, is in tact so in my guess is the medals are copies. Please only assume this information to be a guess, with out scientific proof.