Tim B

Isn't the Purple Heart with that slot-brooch more possibly WWII or Korea vintage? The Vietnam Service Medal (box) appears to only show the contract/DSA #. Would be nice to know the manufacturer if possible. Some are marked with both pieces of information, this one may not be. It did come in a carton of 6/40 sets however. Tim

Any ideas? I heard "Williams & Anderson" might be a possibility? Thanks! Tim

Picked up another example with slightly better details on the medal. Appears to be the same version as the previous example I showed earlier. Tim

Oops, forgot about this one, not as commonly seen as the UN marked boxes. Tim

Other die differences noted as well but I only called out the leaf on these. Here's a couple more shots of some examples I've seen and you can see variations in the box as well. Tim

And, the comparison shots:

And, the close-up of the second example:

Here's my other one, without the box but, has the longer top leaf:

A close-up of the front:

Do we know the actual producer of these UN medals? I see most of these simply have the UN label with letter designation for the language. I ask, as I have seen slight variations in these and feel there is at least two makers of the English version. One of the differences is the length of the "top leaf". Tim Here's one of mine in the box of issue:

Hi guys! Thanks for the additional inputs here, as Brian stated, this is what makes a forum so important and really helps out collectors when they can share knowledge. Hello Cimbineus, Great PIC's and examples!! Can you tell us a little more on the black light you are using? I know many have used black lighting successfully for years on cloth and other items but as I understand it, you have to have a certain frequency for these to make the items glow; just any old black light will not work. Do you have the rating of the bulb or can you show us what you are using? Thanks again everyone! Tim

Hi Bill, IMO, your vic is fine. It has a sharp strike and the edges look like shear marks from the die as these got stamped out. Tim

Here's an interesting little Vic with probably the most common three clasp setup. Picked it up the other day from a local that listed it on eBay and I decided to pick it up locally and meet the person. Turns out the medal belonged to her grandfather, who was a balloonist in the Army's 5th Balloon Corps. Has all kinds of maps, documentation, etc for him along with period photos and postwar signatures from Doolittle and others. I need to sit down with her and her husband to see what all they have and try to help them get rid of a lot of it. Anyway, a very nice little addition with a great surprise! Enjoy, Tim

Hi Bill, PIC's are always needed to say for sure but it sounds okay at this point. Some of these are much better than others in details and they are quite beautiful when the details stand out. Tim

Hi Bill, Glad to help on the Vic questions and please understand, that no one person's opinions here weigh more than anyone's else, so happy to have the discussion. As far as moving the 35 & growing pages, I don't think we should bother. Place it in the general area and leave it. If others want to continue to add to it, so be it. However, once we start with varied and specific thread topics, I think it will become obsolete fast enough and probably serve nothing more as good reading to someone new venturing in. Nothing to say, many of the topics discussed in this thread won't be revisited and re-discussed, only in more detail and more concisely instead of the constant push/pull in various directions. The intent is to have more organization into how the material is layed out, not to limit it. Tim

Hi guys, Well... I learned something new again. Obviously, I don't collect British awards as much as other areas and didn't know that the Star (1914-15) ended in 1915. I knew the Mons Star was limited to a certain timeframe but always assumed the 14/15 Star was something that carried out until the end of the war, only the design remained the same. Hey, go figure! With that, I can see the ribbon as is, other than the MID is in fact upside down. I have seen this incorrect placement before, so assume its something that did happen occasionally? Thanks again Timo and Jeff! Tim

I want to add this and then, pretty much I'm done with the issue unless there is a specific question directly relating to it. I think there is some confusion here as to what I personally would like this "Victory Medal" thread to become. This is my final recommendation and then I simply can't add anything more: Forum: Interallied Victory Medals of World War One (or something similar/agreed to) Sections: Examples only; this would be something we should all agree to. - General Information: Background info and perhaps a catch all for common type questions/discussions. - Country Specific: This is where we could separate each country version out. It would allow a much easier search for those interested only in those specific examples and we could even break down the variants further within those areas if desired. An example would be: Italy, type 1, 2, 3, 4… or, official, unofficial, re-strikes, reproductions, etc. - Battle Clasp Varieties / Other Attachments: This area would cover items like MID’s, Mother bars, the US Campaign/Country and Navy Clasps. This would be a big benefit for those interested specifically on discussing the myriad of clasps, both official and unofficial. - State, Local & Veteran Organizational Issue Medals: Though there may not be much interest in these by the current members, there are certainly collectors out there that do collect these items and are, in their own right, highly sought after. - Other Victory Medals / Related Items: We could add an area that could be a catch-all for items like Commemoratives, Anniversary, Fantasy items or whatever else. Keep in mind, these are only some quick ideas and the best way would be for the current members here to add to this to get what they thought would be of benefit and make this work for us. I don’t understand the defeatist attitude here, nor the argument against this move when most of you that don’t care to see a change admit in your own comments the current system has flaws, such as the poor search capabilities, or having to read through several pages to get to what you’re looking for. Nick has openly asked in the lounge area what else we would like to see here on the forum, so this is a good opportunity to improve an area, that like others have said, is certainly one of the main reasons you come here. By separating the various topics under one general forum on Victory Medals, this will make it much easier to find specific information faster and will still allow all members to read just as much information as they do now, it will just be more organized. I think if you think this through, you can see where specific discussions will flow much better. No more discussing a certain topic, or asking a specific question, only to be offset by someone taking that discussion in a completely and unrelated direction. For that, we simply start another topic for discussion. That's it. Tim

Bill, First, welcome to the forum! I think you'll enjoy your time here at GMIC and hopefully not only in this section. Laslo does have the best printed reference out there that I am aware of and the 2nd edition was his latest endeavor. You do see these offered from time to time on avenues like eBay or Amazon, but it comes down to who else is looking. I would suggest watching eBay for the best chance of getting a copy the cheapest. On the Italian Vic questions: According to Laslo, the only official medal of Orsolini's design that has the 1915 date (the actual date Italy entered the war) is known as the Type 5. There are a couple of other unofficial or unknown origin medals as well. It must be pretty rare as I do not see these being offered anywhere and it's still one that I need as well. Tim

Does this ribbon bar make sense? I don't understand how he could get a MID and not have a WW1 Star? Tim

Well, anyway done from now on. this is a very important topic for the forum, for me, especially .. Without him I would not be here. Lambert EXACTLY MY POINT!!

There are ways to incorporate information into new areas on the main forum, happens all the time. As far as splitting up these 35 current pages and putting that into separate topics, I don't see that happening as it would be very time consuming and due to the actual discussion on those pages, would probably be very confusing taking bits and pieces and moving them around. I would suggest we leave this current thread intact and as future subjects come up, we can cut & paste or simply restate what was previously discussed. Nice thing about that is, some more information has come to light since and opinions have changed on some issues, so it would be more accurate and concise IMO. The problem with continuing to wait is simple; we had brought this topic up before when we had half the amount of information and pages we have today. By continuing to delay this move, we only compound the issue. Do we wait unitl we have 70 or 100 pages?? Tim

"However I don't think it will occur for the same reason that it didn't occur the last time this was suggested. There is simply not enough regular contributors to this specific thread. There appears to be a relatively low number of active and regular contributors (up to 10-15) with a corresponding large number of watchers. With over 21,000 views you would expect a more active contributor rate but this is not the case." Hi Rob, Agree, though some may not participate simply because they don't want to trudge through 35 pages looking for a specific item of interest. Can be very time consuming, even using the search function. Reading various threads on a variety of subjects at different forums, I find that there are always more readers (lurkers ) than members actually posting. I think this is due to some that feel they don't have the requisite knowledge to participate in the discussions or simply are learning and reading. They may have a general interest in the subject, but are not dedicated to "Vic's" per-se. That's okay, and as time as showed me, it all starts with a general interest in something that eventually leads to more down the road. For what it's worth, I put my plug in the lounge thread on "what you would like to see". Hopefully! Tim

Hi Tom, Interesting perspective. I would hope that the general subject area would still hold interest and that "Wow" factor, even if split into different sub-topics. My thought would be more towards having trains of thought being able to expand on individual topics as they came up, instead of jumping back and forth as it does now. Kind of hard to ask questions on particulars and then have someone else jump in with something heading in a totally different direction. Loses momentum IMO and I know I am guilty of this as much as the next person but we could control the discussions much better if we had different threads within this separate dedicated forum, and still keep the topics alive, though better organized. My thoughts anyway. Tim

:lol: This poor guy probably never knew the headaches his portrait would cause almost 100 years later! Tim

Thanks again guys, really appreciate the feedback! Dave, Do you have any idea where or why some think these medals might have been re-ribboned with this full wrap brooch? I remember reading something where the Army reconditioned medals during the '80's but don't know if this has anything to do with that. The Meyer example you show is what I was looking for. Thanks again, Tim