Nick

It would be nice to establish any trade mark features on these medals to help identify these fakes, that is if they are as good as they purport to be. Makes you realise if someone can do this as a cottage industry what could be achieved with real industrial facilities and expertise. He got greedy, that appears to be what gave him away.

It looks like this to me but the odd word may be wrong ? The Police Commissioners inform me that Ivory papers will enable the holders to stay up to the last moment possible nearly up to the time the pro(cession?) appears

More sad news. RIP Audrey Thanks for the update.

I agree with you Paul, Customs seems to be the most likely explanation fits with the collar tabs and cap.

And the article highlights the difficult issue of how do you determine who qualifies for such a medal. I am not saying there shouldn't be one, but for example a campaign medal will be awarded for all those in operational theatre for the prescribed number of days. Doesn't matter you role, whether you are front line at most risk or in a support role, if you are there for the number of days required you qualify. When the conflict is on your home soil there is no geographical boundary so days served is a bit of a mute point. But as has been said already do you give it to only front line staff on COVID Wards/ ITU, paramedics or do you give it to all NHS staff regardless of role. Then there are the thousands of others all risking their health and lives to keep the country going care workers in private nursing homes, social workers, volunteers, key workers, police etc etc, There comes a point when there are so many deserving people where do you draw the line.

Well for a first finished painting that is a particularly fine work, well done I wish I could paint like that ! I really like the bust as well. My skills go as far as helping the kids paint their Warhammer figures. Although I think I am now more into it than they are, as I am finding it a great way to relax in the evening.

In the UK there are 1.2million NHS workers in England alone you then need to factor in Scotland, NI and Wales., if you then consider any other persons such as NHS volunteers 700,000 of them or other public facing key workers involved in the fight like police, military, Border Force, council employees, Public Health bodies etc etc Then there are charity workers exposing themselves to help people in unfortunate circumstances. Thats the tip of the iceberg and a lot of people to consider. The criteria would have to be very strict to make such a medal feasible i.e. front line carers exposing themselves to high risk of infection. But then that would denigrate other essential persons who have placed themselves at high risk of infection for example cleaning staff, in hospitals. We need to see how this pans out in the long term, as it is just the beginning. You may be right that like WW2 a series of medals needs to be considered dependent on role. Call me a cynic but the one factor in the UK that will without a doubt influence any such decisions will be the role the military play in this. If they are deployed in significant numbers, then standby for medals to be issued. If not then other than recognising the acts of a few key individuals such as the usual bigwigs at the top, or those that have sadly paid the ultimate sacrifice or placed themselves at immense risk is the more likely option.

Andrej now working fine. Cheers John for sorting that one out.

Bedford Trucks ?

I believe as suggested already it was used during dry drills to prevent the hammer from breaking when repeatedly firing when using drill rounds or if the chambers were empty. I think it was a way of saving money by conserving ammunition, and preventing damage to the weapons.

Interesting medal worthy of further research if possible. Maybe he left Ireland and emigrated to Canada ? Have you looked at the records for an RIC or Dublin Metropolitan Police officer with that name ?

My May 1929 bible of Scotland Yard identifies 'A' Department was for Administration. A3 covered Promotions & Transfers, Pay Rates, Ceremonials, Special Duties, Medical & Sick, Police Orders. Previously called the Executive Branch A3 was mainly clerical duties, but also included Constables attached to Scotland Yard for special purpose such as motor drivers, and wireless operators. It also included the telegraph office.

Welcome to the forum

Rick's article has been archived for now and it was unfinished work. I will restore it at some point in the future. However all his images are still available here: http://gmic.co.uk/gallery/category/57-rick-lündstroms-german-ribbon-bars/

The problem with this as previously pointed out, is not so much the profit Weitze makes, it is how dealers artificially influence market prices. Any item is worth what the buyer wants to pay and high end pieces are always going to appeal to a certain market. Weitze is a business man, he wants to squeeze the biggest profit he can, he knows his customer base and obviously judged correctly what someone is willing to pay. This unfortunately just makes collecting become more and more unreachable with many high end pieces now far beyond the price the average collector can afford. This is the issue we face as a community, it is a shrinking hobby, becoming more and more exclusive. Many high end buyers being investors as opposed to true collectors. Sure your low end mass manufactured awards are still going to be affordable to most, with prices climbing at a much smaller margin, but their appeal becomes limited over time. You can only buy so many Iron Crosses, Purple Hearts or British War medals. So to keep expanding collections, looking for those rarer item requires deeper and deeper pockets. How many previous collectors do you know who are no longer collecting? Ask them why. A large proportion will be for financial reasons I can assure you. The last decade has seen this really hit home. Many specialist medal auctions are inhabited by dealers and investors, with collectors walking home disappointed and empty handed because prices are too demanding. I have seen time and time again good pieces being auctioned off for crazy prices appearing on dealers sites with an even higher price tag weeks or months later. The dealers need to buy stock and auctions is one of their largest suppliers.

Prosper no longer frequents this forum.

I am sad to announce that Mervyn Mitton who has been Senior Moderator and friend to many of us on GMIC for several years passed away on Wednesday. He had been ill for many years, but he never let this get in the way of his passion for Militaria and Police Collectables. His knowledge of British Police history and collectables was immense and his death is a tragic loss to GMIC and the wider collecting world. Mervyn was always very proactive on GMIC and a real driving force behind the scenes amongst the staff. I will miss his old world charm, warmth, generosity and guidance. Yes he could be slighlty cantankerous at times, but that was part of his makeup, an old school English Gentleman a dying breed that are irreplaceable. I will miss him.

Alan A photo of the armband and sword would be appreciated.

Thanks for sharing this personal story with us.

I have no objection to material being questioned by collectors if supported by a reasoned argument which is conducted in a civil and courteous manner. However the arrogant and somewhat cavalier attitude of the original poster has undermined the worth of the topic and it has therefore been locked.

Hi A long time ago I tried to clean some german ribbon with just water as it was really dirty. It did clean it but it is not something I would do again as it did slightly fade the colour and changed the feel of the material making it very soft and pliable. I would leave it as is. Nick

Tim Thanks for the positive comments. It is still very much work in progress. I agree the search needs work and I am slowly working on ironing out the issues. It has been quite a leap of faith trusting in the developers who have been creating this new platform from scratch. Lots still to be done but slowly we are getting there. Nick

Thanks I need it ....

Members need to be aware that over the next few weeks there will be some major upgrades taking place on the forum. The most important changes are in relation to user log on. Some users may be using a different logon name to their display name. As of the upgrade users MUST log on with their public display name and not their log on name as this will no longer work. Other changes relate to the style and as well as some structural changes. I will try to keep forum down times to a minimum. But to achieve this there may be some periodic changes in style and display, so please do not be overly worried if things look a bit strange from time to time.