Question pn prices

[Paul C]

Thanks all.

[Tony]

On 21/01/2017 at 23:08, Paul C said:

I have given some thought to my focus of which British Victory Medals I would like to collect. Please let me know if this is possible.

I would like to collect Victory medals named to men in the Royal Navy and see if I can get a medal to at least one person who served on every battleship. A few questions:

When I see a medal named to a man in the RN what are the online sources to see what ship he served on?

Does this collecting focus make sense?

I really appreciate all the help and advice from everyone.

Last one... In the above post there is a reference to BWM. What is that?

One man may have served on several ships so checking the papers in the links Michael provided is a good idea and thinking about the cost of medals, those to men who took part at Jutland will increase the price as will any medal to men serving with the RAN. I'm not about RCN medal prices.

Just a question - why only the VM? A man may be entitled to a trio or pair depending when he entered theatre and if discharged through wounds/sickness he'd also be entitled to the silver war badge. Sailors who fell will have a memorial plaque. However, hunting down a broken group may be a never ending task.

Is the MN of interest? They also received the Mercantile Marine War Medal.

The book Paul mentions is a very good idea, not cheap but perhaps 2nd hand copies are available online http://bookshop.nationalarchives.gov.uk/9780952754442/Great-War-Medal-Collectors-Companion/

 

[Paul C]

Good point.

[15THPACAV]

I must say that I do not understand collecting only Victory Medals, as opposed to the recipient's full medal entitlement, be it a BWM & VM pair, a 14-15 trio, or a 14 trio. 

Many fine WWI groups or pairs are still very reasonable in price, and can be found all over the internet, from dealers to auction houses, to Ebay.

Personally, I would be most unhappy with an incomplete pair or group.

 

[Michael Johnson]

Many do feel that way.  However many British War Medals were sold for their silver value and smelted.  If you are collecting to a theme, Victory Medals are the least expensive way to collect First War British medals.

Michael

[Chris Boonzaier]

6 hours ago, 15THPACAV said:

I must say that I do not understand collecting only Victory Medals, as opposed to the recipient's full medal entitlement, be it a BWM & VM pair, a 14-15 trio, or a 14 trio. 

Many fine WWI groups or pairs are still very reasonable in price, and can be found all over the internet, from dealers to auction houses, to Ebay.

Personally, I would be most unhappy with an incomplete pair or group.

 

I agree about the frustration of split groups.... however, I think there is something really admirable and interesting about the descision about collection single victory medals...

The tens of thousands of siongle victory medals out there are the poorest refugees in the world.... when the silver BWM were valuable enough to be melted down, the orphaned Victories were not even worth that much.... by deciding to focus on single victories a collector has not only a cheap and chearful collecting field, but he is also the honorable individual who steps up to restore the memory of the 10s of thousands of soldiers whose single Victory medal is a junk box tinket.

If I did not have too many sidelines as it is, I could quite easily slip into setting myself a goal of "100 researched single victory medals to 100 different units"... not only bringing 100 forgotten men back to life, but also great research potential.

Its like taking a mutt from the animal pound as opposed to buying a pedigree dog.... :-)

[Bilco]

7 hours ago, 15THPACAV said:

I must say that I do not understand collecting only Victory Medals, as opposed to the recipient's full medal entitlement, be it a BWM & VM pair, a 14-15 trio, or a 14 trio. 

Many fine WWI groups or pairs are still very reasonable in price, and can be found all over the internet, from dealers to auction houses, to Ebay.

Personally, I would be most unhappy with an incomplete pair or group.

 

Have a look at the Victory Medal section of this Forum - http://gmic.co.uk/forum/254-inter-allied-victory-medals-of-the-great-war/

There are lots of single Victory medals on the market - and lots of varieties to find. But some prices are high for the rarer ones - Brazil, Cuba, Siam.

Bill

[Paul C]

Of course if I like a Victory Medal and it was in a group I would buy the group.

[Michael Johnson]

Quite rightly.  "Type" collectors who split groups for one medal were/are the bane of our hobby.  It's bad enough when groups are split within families ("One silver for you, one silver for me; one bronze for you, one bronze for me."), but that is understandable.

The sad fact is that many groups will never be re-assembled.  But that Victory holds the key to the man's story.  And in some cases the story continues.  I bought a 1914-15 Star and Victory to a man in the Royal Naval Reserve.  His service record showed that he had been discharged with tuberculosis and died very soon after.  I got his death certificate, and put the case forward to the Commonwealth War Graves through the "In From the Cold Project".  It was accepted and now a CWGC headstone is being erected: http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/75451073/MURPHY, JAMES

Michael

Edited January 26, 2017 by Michael Johnson

[Mike McLellan]

I know that you're not looking for "atta boys", but you get one none the less. Very commendable. 

[peter monahan]

I share Michael's feelings.  Though I misremembered the details, my first WWI medal purchase was one from a box of singletons and those few of us who collected to the Indian Army regularly cursed the 'pickers'' and dealers in India/Pakistan who bought medals at bullion value and either refused or threw away any bronze ones.

As recently as last year I was in a coin shop in a large mall near Toronto and found a half dozen medals of various sorts.  Two, in separate cases across the shop from each other, were to a Lt. in the RAF.  I now own them, though have little expectation of ever finding out anything useful about his career, as he was a late entry and almost certainly not a pilot. [Very common surname.]  Not doen for an 'attaboy' but because I couldn't bear to see them broken up.