One of my favorite medals....

[Dieter3]

I really, really like this medal, not sure why. I don't know much about it other than it is an agricultural merit award. It's in great condition. A bit of light soiling to the ribbon and a patina to the front of the medallion (which I'm guessing could be cleaned, but I'm gonna leave it...) are about the only detractors, it's in really great condition. One of you might remember this one....

[Kryptos]

It is indeed a good looking item.

And the general law I live by with medals, unless you really need to, never clean. Almost without fail items are worse off after being messed with.

[Dieter3]

It is indeed a good looking item.

And the general law I live by with medals, unless you really need to, never clean. Almost without fail items are worse off after being messed with.

About the only thing I would ever do would be to attempt to remove obvious dirt from a metal component - no touching of ribbons for sure! Polishing - I'm a bit torn on that one, have to look at all other factors of a piece - but I've never done it. I know some people do. I did have one person actually tell me about washing ribbons to make them look cleaner on pieces that were heavily soiled!

[Jareth]

Very nice medal ! what were these awarded for?

Edited December 9, 2009 by Jareth

[Dieter3]

Well, it is a merit medal of some kind. What exactly earned this particular award? Unknown, but if I had to guess it would likely have been for agricultural services rendered to perhaps the military or a community??

[Kryptos]

About the only thing I would ever do would be to attempt to remove obvious dirt from a metal component - no touching of ribbons for sure! Polishing - I'm a bit torn on that one, have to look at all other factors of a piece - but I've never done it. I know some people do. I did have one person actually tell me about washing ribbons to make them look cleaner on pieces that were heavily soiled!

Yes, dirt is one things, if you can easily take it off, but any method using chemical or abrasion means? I would not. It would, now doubt, damage the patina and that would take ages to become uniform again. I know this area can perhaps lead to a huge debate on the issue as there are different approaches and outlooks, but personally I would never do it.

Reminds me of this article I saw on non-destructive rust removal on medals using electrolysis.

[Dieter3]

Especially if you have an otherwise aged-looking piece - it would simply not make sense (to me anyway....) to polish a medal when the ribbon is aged. Though I could understand shining up an otherwise very nice medallion on a very nice ribbon to make it look more uniformly "minty". I've got a few that fit that description, but I have not polished them - I'm very reluctant to do so as I think chemicals belong far away from medals. I'm too clumsy, I'd ruin the rest of the piece accidentally. But I won't fault someone if they choose to beautify something, provided it would appear appropriate to the age of the rest of the piece.

[Kryptos]

Especially if you have an otherwise aged-looking piece - it would simply not make sense (to me anyway....) to polish a medal when the ribbon is aged. Though I could understand shining up an otherwise very nice medallion on a very nice ribbon to make it look more uniformly "minty". I've got a few that fit that description, but I have not polished them - I'm very reluctant to do so as I think chemicals belong far away from medals. I'm too clumsy, I'd ruin the rest of the piece accidentally. But I won't fault someone if they choose to beautify something, provided it would appear appropriate to the age of the rest of the piece.

Suppose it also matter what the item is. For example, a good friend of mine collects Japanese swords. It is perfectly OK and recommended to restore an old sword and resharpen it and such. Increases the value, do the same with a European sword and the collecting community will lynch you. In the German medal area I know of no one who would risk polishing and cleaning unless it is very specific circumstances.

[Dieter3]

I'm not a sword collector (though if I was, it'd be Japanese swords! - Too many fakes though I hear, so really gotta know what you're looking at!). I do collect Japanese bayonets though, and most serious collectors look down on any serious messing with them - definitely a no, no to do any sort of sharpening, rebluing, polishing beyond maybe just simply surface rust removal. The real hard core blokes don't even want to see grip screws with any signs of being touched by a driver and turned!