British & Commonwealth Star Rarity Stats

[bratwurstdimsum]

HI all,

On the back of the WWII star stats :

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?p=238779

and Iron Cross Stats in the 'Crosses of the Wehrmacht' forum,

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ad.php?t=15536

I think it would be worthwhile to setup a rarity stats thread here in which we list the type of stars we have have, their type, country (if known), and any other special feature, such as a clasp or named engraving.

After a few responses I'll start to tally them up and hopefully we'll have a good indication of what our community has! Just send your responses in free text and I'll put them into a table...

How about a format like:

*****CLASP--39-45 Burma Africa Italy Pacific F&G Atlantic ACE
STAR--
39-45*******10/2
Burma************3/1
Africa******************21
Italy***********************11
Pacific***************************5
F&G*********************************67***1
Atlantic******************************10**100****2
ACE********************************* 5***2****10



This can be read as:

Forum members have:

10 1939-45 stars / 2 engraved
3 Burma stars / 1 engraved
21 Africa stars
11 Italy stars
5 Pacific stars
67 France & Germany stars / 1 with Atlantic Clasp
100 Atlantic stars / 10 with F&G Clasp / 2 with ACE clasp
10 ACE stars / 5 with F&G Clasp / 2 with Atlantic Clasp


BDS

[Darrell]

Sounds Good:

Here's mine:

1 - 1939-45 Star (Awarded KIA M.11681 PTE. WILLIAM GRANT)
1 - Atlantic Star (w/ Air Crew Europe bar)
1 - Africa Star (engraved M.12725 E. PETERS)
1 - Air Crew Europe Star (Awarded to KIA Gordon Knupp)
1 - Pacific Star
1 - Burma Star
1 - Italy Star
1 - France and Germany Star

[bratwurstdimsum]

Thanks Darrell

Mine's only a startout collection, my interest up to now has been German...

1 - 1939-45 Star (Awarded VX109490 R.M.Staley)
1 - Atlantic Star (w/ Air Crew Europe bar)
1 - France and Germany Star

Thus, the interest in rarity stats!!

KEEP Posting everybody!

[Tony Farrell]

Rarity statistics? For WWII Stars? Are you serious? The word 'rare' is not synonymous with WWII campaign stars. It's a bit like Victory Medal statistics - six million + and counting.

[Darrell]

Rarity statistics? For WWII Stars? Are you serious? The word 'rare' is not synonymous with WWII campaign stars. It's a bit like Victory Medal statistics - six million + and counting.

Thanks for your infinitely valuable input to this thread. If you would have read his thread carefully, it isnt about the rareity of the stars themselves, but rare in the sense of which ones are missing in collections

BTW .. if you have tons of them ... lets see your numbers.

[Adam H]

Although I think this is an interesting idea, I don't know what its practical value would be. What are we measuring here? The numbers of awarded stars are well known, and their survival rate is much much higher than any WWII German award, or Victorian British medal....

Then we have to address the different issues that were minted post war etc etc.

I can give a list of all my stars, I am not specifically a WWII collector but I have I guess quite a few...I just am not sure what we're trying to analyze here.

Cheers,

Adam

[bratwurstdimsum]

Ok some explaination then, as my objective is to obtain a sample of what this keen collecting community has in its posession, and to extrapolate then a feel for how rare a star is or a star-clasp combination.

If for nothing else it will be a good conversation starter (eg. "Saaay...I've never seen a ACE with a F&G clasp...do you have any provinance with it? How much is it worth?)

This is not meant to be a sensis or a survey but a place where people can see how serious we are about our hobby. If, between all of us we only scrape up a couple of dozen stars then we can presume that more people are into German medals (I know that was an obvious statement given the name of the site ).

I would think as a guideline all medals should be original and minted in the early post-war period. As I am new to Allied medals, are there any other suggestions? eg. Should we add defense medals or later made stars if they have engravings?

C'mon lets see your medal counts

BDS

[coastie]

I'm game here is mine:

1 - 1939-45
1 - Atlantic
1 - Africa
1 - Air Crew Europe
1 - Pacific
1 - Burma
1 - Italy
1 - France and Germany

[bratwurstdimsum]

Stats to date then after 3 replies

*****CLASP--39-45 Burma Africa Italy Pacific F&G Atlantic ACE BOB
STAR--
39-45*******1/2
Burma*************2
Africa******************1/1
Italy***********************2
Pacific***************************2
F&G*********************************3
Atlantic***********************************1****2
ACE******************************************1/1

Keep 'em coming...

[McCulloh]

I guess I'll play too:
39-45=2 (one engraved to Carleton below)
Burma=1
Italy=2
Pacific=2 (one engraved, Pte. A. Carlton, Cambs. regt.)
F+G=2
Africa=2: one with North Africa bar
ACE=1 (plus one fake)
Atlantic=1

[Graeme R]

Just my grandad's ones

1 39-45 Star
1 Africa Star
1 Italy Star

Graeme

[bratwurstdimsum]

Stats to date then after 5 replies.

X/Y
X=# medals
Y=# medals that are named

*****CLASP--39-45 Burma Africa Italy Pacific F&G Atlantic ACE BOB N.Africa
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
STAR--
39-45*******3/3
Burma*************3
Africa******************3/1*****************************1
Italy***********************5
Pacific***************************3/1
F&G*********************************5
Atlantic***********************************2****2
ACE******************************************2/1

Keep 'em coming...

[behblc]

Stars

My first look at this section of the Forum.
I must say I can identify with how in house clearances things get thrown out which should never have been lost , sometimes luck being the deciding factor.
Sadly aunts and mothers seen to be those who do the "sorting".

What I have came from my father's home which was broken up in 1970 when his mother passed away.
Pacific Star , 1.
1939-45 Star , 3.
Italy Star , 1.
Atlantic Star , 1.
Aircrew Star Europe , 1.

How things can be come lost ?
My mother gave my brother ( then aged 5) our fathers medals to play with , they were never seen again.
Poor old "Bob" used some of his late brother's medal to replace those lost, others he had to buy.
30 years later my mother in an energetic clear out almost did for them again.

This did not prevent her from throwing out his kit bag two years later, she regarded it as rubbish , "no one would want it".
A great lady but ruthless when she was in clearing out mode.

Aged 11 I was given a set of medals and a logbook , by good luck I still have both- the boxes for the medals - mother again.

The lad who was the owner of these items his headstone can be seen in Ade's "Channock Chase" thread.

[bratwurstdimsum]

Thanks for your interest behblc, and of the others who have posted thus far.

I hope that people will eventually work their way to this part of the forum and get around to posting their totals, I would be very surpised if most of the big medal collectors out there do not have at least a small section of Commonwealth Stars.

As for your relatives, well they sound like a heritage trust nightmare! Don't let them into any museums ok

Dumping stuff in the garbage is not such an uncommon thing though, I found a Naval serviceman's recordbook in the trash when I was about 11 years old and have kept it to this day...



I'd also thought I'd chip in with my meagre collection as well: ::

[behblc]

Last lot.

These belonged to my father.
He was in a "Teleg. Sparker" in the navy.
Also on the line up 2 x medals relating to the R.U.C. which he joined on discharge in 1946 ,he retired in 1976.
He was on one of the gunboats which took the Commando force off at Bruneval and was on one of the six MTB's which went out against the Brest Squadron when they forced the Channel in 1942.

The collecting value does not often relate to the service which accompanied the "Stars".