A RARE BOER WAR MEDAL

[dkcraftetc]

Hello,

I have this medal but it has only 2-bars. They are top to bottom, relief of ladysmith, tugelia heights. Could you tell me what would the approx. value be? Thanks.

Regards,

Alan

[Mervyn Mitton]

Hi- Alan. I would think around £150 -$240. However, this could change either way - dependent on naming. Please give the details from around the rim of the medal and we can check on him. Mervyn

[dkcraftetc]

Hi- Alan. I would think around £150 -$240. However, this could change either way - dependent on naming. Please give the details from around the rim of the medal and we can check on him. Mervyn

Thank you Mervyn,

The details around rim are as follows: 2401 P te H. Haslam, R: Lance: Regi.

[Mervyn Mitton]

Alan - probably should read Royal Lancs. Regt.. I would feel my price is about right - if anything, a little less.

[Guest Rick Research]

If I had had access to British medals (and reference sources) when I was a nipper, my entire collecting life would now be in a parralel universe.

Serious question following.

But first, many persons consider my arcane and obscure knowledge of imperial-era German officers eerily/demonically-possessed uh, obsessive compulsive. Well, maybe. The thing is, and hence my question:

How CAN you buy medals like this at some shop or a show, "live," on the spot?

I can understand a lifelong focus on one singular unit, so you "know" every single bar and basically every single name...

but I couldn't make a snap decision on a German group like this one medal. With what seems to me the impossibly complicated variables

combinations of bars

multiplicity of units involved

a century of interfereing monkey fingers screwing around with bars

...

I'd have to lug all my reference books around with me-- and it would take time time time coming up with the most basic of questions

Is it legitimate or not.

How do you do it? :speechless1:

[Mervyn Mitton]

Rick - you make it sound like 'witchcraft' - but you do exactly the same thing on a daily basis - just in a different field. When you deal with things on a daily basis - 'you just know' - certainly not infallible, but a good guide. I have bought 5 groups in the past week and you have to make a decision on quality, genuiness and price - if you make a mistake it's yours, not a museum who can back pedal if necessary.

I think most of our members do exactly the same - I asked a question on members info. this afternoon and in 3 minutes I had received an ident..

We have had the shop seventeen years and only once have been asked for a refund - and that turned out not to have a genuine reason.

I made one serious mistake a few years ago - and it is going to be a question , because I think our medal members will enjoy the 'tracking'. It was for a 1st.WW DFM and there are a number of queries - even though it was from the daughter who was 87 ! Will dig it out and see if you can help.

[Guest Rick Research]

So: It IS "just" single-minded decades-long monastic memorization!

Wish I actually DID have the legendary "photographic memory" but mine is more like a much re-used rotary mimeograph stencil... bits and pieces remain legible, might be short-cuts, but only by endless repetition.

Basically, we are higher forms (arguably) than rats in a maze. We all get to the right place for our "reward" by endless practice that only LOOKS "easy."

:beer:

[dkcraftetc]

Alan - probably should read Royal Lancs. Regt.. I would feel my price is about right - if anything, a little less.

Thank you very much Mervyn.

[VtwinVince]

Chris, you'll like this story: about twenty years ago a collector friend of mine was approached by a co-worker, who had found some medals in his dad's safe after he died. The father was a jeweller, not a collector. It turned out to be a Boer DSO and QSA medal, named to a Canadian mounted officer. I believe only five DSO's were given to Canadians in the conflict. The pair wound up in the military museum in Ottawa, if my memory is correct. I had the opportunity to handle these, and boy what a great pair of items.

[Mervyn Mitton]

Adding to this little story about rare groups being found - some years ago a chap came into the shop from Rhodesia. He told us about how he had a bought a Company and when they had taken over - on top of a cupboard in the Director's office, they found a tin with a group of about ten medals. One of them was a VC from WW1 - the Father of the man who had sold the Company. He tracked the family down to return them - which showed great integrity, as at that point he had become the owner.