Military Cross - original one?

[Stijn David]

Hello,

Can anyone tell me iff the shown MC is a original one? Iff so is it a award piece or a so called second issue?

Alle help and info is welcome.

Cordial greetinsg + thanks for looking

[Stijn David]

The reverse

[Stijn David]

the bow of issue

[Stijn David]

The inside

[Ed_Haynes]

Looks to me to be a proper WWI-era George V MC, in Royal Mint case. It has had a hard life, but seems OK to me. The copies (= fakes) are more common for the scarcer Georgs VI award, but they do exist (and for almost everything these sad days, it seems).

Edited August 23, 2008 by Ed_Haynes

[Stijn David]

Hello Ed,

Thank you for the reply. So this is a WWI issue piece with original case? Is the MC silver and the suspension abr another type of metal?

Any idea on howmuch where awarded of this type + wHat would one bring in this condition (it has a provenance towards a Second Leutenant) ?

Cordial greetings,

[Ed_Haynes]

Yes, this is a WWI MC in original case. Both the MC and suspension are silver, but of different grades (I believe) and they certainly tarnish differently (in part due to their degree of contact with the case lining which seems to be ratrher toxic). It is hard (but necessary) to resist the tendancy to polish, for that would destroy the history of the piece and replace it with nasty "bling".

Numbers? Abbot and Tamplin's excellent research shows 37,081 MCs from the creation of the award in 1914 through 1920. There were maybe another 230 (or so) from then until George V's death in 1936 and the transition to the new George VI design.

The whole issue of provenance needs to be treated with some care. The MC was, unusually for British awards, unnamed so you can never be very sure about anything. Some were privately named (but this adds a whole new area of concern). When a medal is in an original mounted group, you have some certainty, but anything else is just an attribution, a story, maybe a fantasy.

Value? Not a game I like to play. The 2008 Medal Yearbook (controversial enough in its own right) shows a George V single MC at ?500-550. A case will add a bit, but not a lot. Checking a couple of reliable dealers' lists, I find single WWI MCs at around ?500, cased around ?550. Take this with sone size of grain of salt.

Hope this helps.

Edited August 24, 2008 by Ed_Haynes

[Stijn David]

Hi Ed,

Thank you very much for the advice and information. Normally price is also not quite my thing because it is very relative.

This one was obtained togheter with some other goodies for approx. 15 ? earlier this year from a person who was selling porcelain, etc....

The current owner does actualy not collect british galantry awards but he did find a nice addition to have even if he tought it was a fake he obtained. Thecase was nicely made, etc.... and for that amount he did not have to suffer alot !!

SO i can tell my friend thanks towards you that he has done very well

Cordial greetings, :cheers:

[geoff]

Hi just like to add a comment on authenticity, I read an article a while back about copy and authentic M.C.'s and spotting the difference, I seem to remember that original M.C.'s always have a counter sunk suspension hole on the rear of the cross.

If the above is deemed to be correct then I concur with previous comments on it's authenticity, well done.

Best regards

Geoff.