sumserbrown

Thanks for the suggestion Rob, in the meantime I found a piece of replacement ribbon from a seller on Ebay, but I will bear in mind the OMSA ribbon bank for any other medals. best wishes Rob

These are non-official bars, probably made for veterans waiting for their official medals to arrive, or for veterans who wanted to supplement their official medals with extra bars. The medal was never issued like this. You can see by the stamp on the back of the bars that they were made in France. Your medal has lost its suspension bar and when issued this was well sewed to the ribbon so difficult to remove and put back. The easiest way therefore to add these unofficial bars to an official medal was to open the brass ring joining the bottom of the ribbon to the medal, separate the medal, add the bars, put the medal back on the ring and then close the ring again. Often then you are left with a small gap in the ring as you can see in your photo. You do not see that gap on official medals that have not been tampered with. best wishes Rob

Just signed up as a patron; very happy to contribute if it helps the future of GMIC. Rob

That's an excellent group. Good to see the Panama Medal of Solidarity in a group rather than being loose. Rob

OK done, many thanks Rob

Hi Rob, if you can track down that particle from Paulo Estrela then please post it or send it to me (even untranslated) as it would be very interesting to see. I have found the list (or a list) of British recipients from the Gazette and the three levels are Gold, Silver with rosette and Bronze. At least on this list there is 1x Gold, 6x Silver and 59x Bronze only. Haig is an obvious choice for gold, but the others seem a little random, or at least I don't see any sort of pattern among them. Rob this is p1 this is p2 from the Gazette Rob

Hi Rob thanks, that's great news best wishes Rob

Hi Lambert, It is mentioned in the (excellent) book on Verdun Medals by Thierry Silvert (2006) on p19. I have scanned in that page as well as the front cover of the book. It doesn't say anything about the rarity of this medal although I suspect it must be quite uncommon to find one. best wishes Rob Scan2023-01-09_182155.pdf Scan2023-01-09_182314.pdf

Having just acquired one of these medals in bronze myself, it occurred to me that given their 'rarity', you do see them reasonably often either on Ebay or dealer sites. Does anyone know if there was ever a re-issue or authorised later copy made? Given the prices they fetch, and the relative ease of forgery, does anyone know if they have ever been outright faked in the market-place? I have done a little searching and so far I have not yet found a good source that compares a genuine medal (and ribbon I guess) to a later copy. Has anyone seen anything like that, or does anyone have enough knowledge to tell a genuine version? thanks Rob

Hi Bill, I have tried to find as many photos on the web as I can find of the bronze versions and they all seem to have the same size ball suspension. It would be interesting to know if anyone out there has some tell-tale signs / measurements they use to distinguish a real medal from a later copy. The other link I found was this one, from a UK regimental museum site Panama Decorations and Awards - Worcestershire Regiment as it details the award of the Panama medal to an actual, named British soldier. In this case, despite being a Victoria Cross holder (the highest gallantry medal in the British Empire) he was awarded a bronze medal because of his rank. best wishes Rob

Happy to follow down whatever route you decide is best, as I also have so far taken out much more than I have put into this site and I find it very valuable (and enjoyable) to pick the brains of the experts virtually residing here when I need to. Happy to watch adverts, happy to pay not to have adverts, will buy some merchandise (I would like a lapel pin, cufflinks or a coaster for my desk for example), happy to pay to advertise medals for sale or for those I am wanting to buy, happy for an annual subscription. Let's just keep the site going and keep it alive for existing and new members. best wishes, Rob

Hi Rob, not sure if you know the answer to this or not, bit I have just bought one in bronze and was intrigued. I have also read in several places that Panama issued 100 to each of the WWI allied countries, and in gold, silver and bronze varieties. What is not clear to me is whether 1/ 100 medals were issued in total to each country (as a mix of gold, silver, bronze of maybe variable proportions) or 2/ whether there were 100 of each metal (100 gold, 100 silver, 100 bronze) or 3/ were there 100 bronze and maybe fewer silver and then 1 or 2 gold per country. Clearly option 2 seems very unlikely - why have 100 gold per country, but any thoughts on this? thanks Rob

Hi Jeff, not sure if you know the answer to this or not, bit I have just bought one in bronze and was intrigued. I have also read in several places that Panama issued 100 to each of the WWI allied countries, and in gold, silver and bronze varieties. What is not clear to me is whether 1/ 100 medals were issued in total to each country (as a mix of gold, silver, bronze of maybe variable proportions) or 2/ whether there were 100 of each metal (100 gold, 100 silver, 100 bronze) or 3/ were there 100 bronze and maybe fewer silver and then 1 or 2 gold per country. Clearly option 2 seems very unlikely - why have 100 gold per country, but any thoughts on this? thanks Rob

Very nice grouping Rob

Thanks Jean-Michel, your information, as always, is extremely useful. Rob