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 Replies: 11 / Views: 1,870 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1326 Posts |
I've never seen one of these. It looks like silver to me.   |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5239 Posts |
Could you give the weight and dimensions? Just to make sure.
That is a WWI war medal, unfortunately in rough shape. I forget just why it was awarded but it is a fairly common one. There should be signs of a clasp. However, I believe that it is sterling silver.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1326 Posts |
Thanks, Oriole. I don't have the medal in hand.
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Valued Member
Canada
242 Posts |
WWI British Empire (also Canada) Medal - look on the rim there should be the details of the soldier it was awarded to!
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
Hole near the rim is legitimate for attachment of original suspender, definitely not PMD in this case. I stand to be corrected, but I think the metal is copper-nickel. |
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
It is copper nickel. This was the basic medal given to every serviceman and woman in the Empire. As it was about 5 - 10 million made and there was a silver crisis in 1919, they were hardly going to make them out of silver.
More lucrative and harder to get medals like Victoria Crosses and various stars (I don't know, as I don't really collect or study war medals - but you see lots of these with the copper stars) were silver and many of these medals were handed out posthumously, I have seen WW1 medals with KGVI and QE2 on them.
It is the Victory Medal showing St George trampling on the dragon (In this case an allegory of the Central Powers). Even if you were a conshy (Objector) or a stretcher bearer, you got one.
You can buy good examples for about $10 a pop here. Here in NZ at least they also got a big certificate as well.
Edited by Princetane
03/20/2021 8:35 pm
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Valued Member
Canada
242 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
First of all my name is not Princeton, its Princetane - get it right. I am an indigenous person and have an indigenous name.
Second of all I am not Canadian but New Zealander and our medals were similar and base metal.
Did you also notice it said "Native versions" were bronze, I mean seriously, the racism was that pervasive they could not even get silver like all the YT's?
I even heard generals and high officers got gold medals instead of silver - how about that - elitism and racism.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
945 Posts |
This is known in Britain as the "British War Medal". Some 6.5 Million were issued in Silver, including the 428,000 odd to the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Around 110,000 were issued in Bronze and these, being much scarcer, are worth considerably more than the silver one. The Bronze ones were issued to Chinese, Maltese and Indian personnel in non-combat units.
The value of the OP medal will depend largely on the inscription on the edge - particularly the unit. With the service number, which should be there, it is easy to search out the soldier's service record, and if they also obtained a gallantry medal of some form, that adds hugely to the value.
I can find no mention of a base metal version issued in New Zealand in my book, which admittedly is focussed on British medals. Does anyone have any reference for the cupro-nickel version?
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
Maybe I got the metal wrong, possibly the WW2 ones were and I just assumed as it was the "participation" medal - my bad.
I guess a sacrifice for the empire was worth a few grams of silver.
I remember an Australian "Who do you think you are" episode and it had a Maltese Australian called Shaun Micallef and he went to Malta to actually be presented with an oversized bronze British War Medal for his great grandad - so may be one of the native ones. The Maltese guy handing it over was not very impressed.
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Valued Member
Canada
242 Posts |
Sorry Princetane!
I've seen your name throughout the forums enough to know how it's spelled, but as a current Law School applicant, my autocorrect rather seems to prefer the American university! I've got a decent bit of First Nations heritage too, so I can see why you'd be picky about something like that.
Nonetheless, I don't usually presume people on forums have their actual name as nick, nor that they'll get it right when typing a three-word response!
Interestingly, our Canadian WWII medals were all issued in silver too, notwithstanding being identical to the British and commonwealth nickel versions.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
1610 Posts |
PT - Interesting (although unfortunately not surprising) fact about the different metal used in the medals for indigenous and non-indigenous service personnel. I wonder if the same applied to medals awarded to indigenous Australians who served? Am pretty sure indigenous soldiers were paid less than their non-indigenous comrades. Was that also the case in NZ?
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Replies: 11 / Views: 1,870 |
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Posted 03/20/2021 09:57 am
