Orders and awards from Australia and New Zealand

[Kvart]

Hello.

I would like to have in my collection Order of Australia and Queen's Service Order and Queen's Service Medal from New Zealand. However, in my corner of the world I have never seen them for sale. Nor can I find anyone for sale online at the moment.

How rare would you say they are? Must one live "down under" to find anyone for sale?

[Greg]

Hi Kvart

I am an Aussie and I have been trying to obtain the NZ Queen's Service medal and/or a Queen's Service Order for my collection for at least 10 years and I know of only one example of a QSM for sale in NZ and it was USD$1000- . I even tried to get the NZ Honours Secretariat to loan me one so I could photograph it for a book I am writing and the answer was a flat NO! I search the net (shops, eBay and Auction Houses) for a QSM at least once a month and there has only ever been the one. The NZ government will not allow copies or replicas or even replacements to be made.

For my illustration, I ended up buying a British ISM and some NZ ribbon and "made" my own !!

The Order of Australia in it's various forms can be purchased as copies on eBay or direct from any medal supplier in Australia. As far as originals go, I have bid unsuccessfully on two AMs (Member of the Order of Australia) in the last 3 months - both through public auctions at reputable Auction Houses. One sold for AUD$870- and the other for AUD$1040- (plus buyer's premium and fees). It would certainly be more economical to earn one myself.

Sorry I can't give you better news.

Greg.

Edited October 30, 2009 by Greg

[Kvart]

Hello Greg.

Thank you for your reply.

So they are that hard to get? Then I better settle with a replica of the OoA and make obtaining them a life time project... The price itself indicates it will be hard.

Since you are an Aussie and interested in ODM, I guess you pay attention to awards published in the media or so. Do you think they are awarded rather freely? Since both of the orders are quite young, many awards may not have found their way to the collector's market yet. Maybe that will change during the next 10-15 years? They are not to be returned after death, are they?

[Megan]

Greg - if you are still in need of pictures of New Zealand ODM for your book, please get in touch. Both Philip O'Shea (the NZ Herald) and the Director of the New Zealand Honours Secretariat have been very helpful in providing pictures for my website.

[Greg]

Kvart - if you have a look at http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/ you will see how many are allowed to be awarded each year at the different grades. They are not returned after death but you are right about them being only very young. In years to come, more will be available on the market, I expect. 10-15 years sounds right because almost all the people awarded these honours receive them for their life's work so many tend to be 60+

If you email me on gh1961@bigpond.com, I can put you in touch with some suppliers of good quality replicas.

Megan !!! How nice to 'see' you! I hope your health is still improving.

I needed a photograph of the medal on a particular uniform (an Australian Army Chaplain) so a photo of the medal wasn't what I wanted. I would like a good quality photograph of the NZ QSO for my collection though. The ones on the official NZ government website are not very high resolution.

I have several more photos for your site - medals and orders currently blank - but I need to have some time to sort them out and send them to you.

I am writing this at 5.20am after working all night on my last ever !!!!! university assignment (dissertation). By tomorrow, I will have completed all the requirements for my Master of Social Work degree! It is my 5th Masters degree and I have decided that collecting any more of them (and fighting with university bureacracy) is beyond me and redundant anyway! Anyway, it is time for bed. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Megan]

Sleep well, Greg.

FIVE Masters???? That is worse than my dearly beloved's four Chartered Memberships (Chartered Engineer, Chartered Scientist, Chartered Mathematician and Chartered IT Professional if you must know!).

Health as good as it will get, but I've just been made redundant and a 50+ disabled person is going to have a struggle on her hands...

I will look out the best NZ QSO picture that I have for you, but as it came from the NZ government it may be no better than what's on their site.

[Pagan]

Hi there

Try these links and see if the pics are any good

Try this one

or

This one

Have fun

Mel