What about a book about medal/ribbon bars?

[Claudio]

Dear Forumites,

Since I noticed that lately many collections with great groups and medal bars were stolen and very likely these will be taken apart and hence destroyed to sell medals individually on the market, I thought that it would be a great idea to make a book of the most precious or interesting named groups or medal bars. In this case all the data will survive at least on paper (book).

What do you think? I thought that these groups and medal bars could be put together in the format used by Frank Heukemes and his serie about III. Reich's medals and badges... maybe in three different books: Imperial (different states), Weimar Era (Freikorps, Veteran's associations) and III. Reich. That would be a serie which would tell stories of different soldiers or people through the orders, medals and their urkunden.

Ciao,

Claudio

[Claudio]

I already made a detailed catalogue of my medal bars (see below example of a file), in order to prevent that data and groups could be lost forever through theft, individual pieces sale of a same group, fire or any other kind of natural desaster.

Here is an example how I stored on my computer my data. Thank to this filing system it would be easy to put all the necessary data and pictures together to make an illustrated book.

Ciao,

Claudio

[Claudio]

Second page of the same file (see research and additional pictures).

[Paul C]

Claudio, I like your format for the page. Is it in MS Word format? Is it possible to get the file?

[Ulsterman]

I LOVE the idea. Also, it enhances bars' historical value as there is provenance provided.

[Riley1965]

That's an EXCELLENT way to record your collection. PLEASE tell us how you did it!!!

Doc

[gregM]

Good idea Claudio.

[Deruelle]

Excellent idea Claudio. Which logiciel do you use for it ?

Christophe

[Guest Brian von Etzel]

Why not a pinned thread, edited and monitored to edit out the ohs and ahs and just have a pure thread of medal bars and id's and medal bars without ids.

The minute a book's published, it's out of date.

Rick and Rick, I think a highly edited thread of bars would be great. If it's royalties anyone's after, I'll pay a quarter to look at it each time.

[Daniel Murphy]

The minute a book's published, it's out of date.

If we are talking about the values of such items, yes. But the bars and their history will never be out of date. Personally I would enjoy having a book like this. Eye candy with a history. And it may even start collectors thinking about the man behind the medals and the preservation of the history of bars and the men who wore them. If it kept one great medal bar from being plundered and scattered to the four winds on ebay, it would be worth it.

Dan

[Claudio]

@ Christophe, Doc and Paul: I just used the programm Word to format my files. The easiest and most common way.

@ Dan: I already showed many of my bars on the forum. That's not point. If also my collection get lost, sold or even worse stolern at least the research and data on them will be saved on a ever lasting book. Mind you... I don't want just my pieces to go on the book, but all the most interesting and researched (named) bars of all collectors.

Ciao,

Claudio

Edited December 9, 2006 by Claudio

[Guest Brian von Etzel]

If we are talking about the values of such items, yes. But the bars and their history will never be out of date. Personally I would enjoy having a book like this. Eye candy with a history. And it may even start collectors thinking about the man behind the medals and the preservation of the history of bars and the men who wore them. If it kept one great medal bar from being plundered and scattered to the four winds on ebay, it would be worth it.

Dan

I stand corrected you are quite right. It only begs a volume two when enough more new bars appear.

[Guest Brian von Etzel]

If also my collection get lost, sold or even worse stolern at least the research and data on them will be saved on a ever lasting book.

...I only hope the book will be in a large enough format to allow 'life sized' photos.