South Africa John Chard Decoration/Medal mystery.

[Marcon1]

Hi, Does anyone have more info on this mystery from South Africa.

It's a bronze version WITH decoration on front instead of medal.

 normal silver DECORATION.   

 MYSTERY = bronze DECORATION (Error of wording instead of metal) - I have seen a few and all are in the 9000 range.

 normal bronze version, thin lettering and large ring.

 normal bronze version, thick lettering and small ring.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 28, 2019 by Marcon1

[graham]

Marcon1,

Check out these websites in the Description sections for more info: -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chard_Medal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chard_Decoration

Regards,

Graham

[Wessel Gordon]

Marcon1,

I have both the full size and miniature of both the John Chard Medal and John Chard Decoration. The medals are bronze while the decoration is silver.

 

As Graham mentioned those two links are very informative. I am from South Africa and if you want more info than what's available on Wikipedia I'll try and dig it up for you.

 

Wessel

 

 

[Marcon1]

Hi, I have a copy of Paul P. Matthysen's book "A guide to South African Awards" (highly recommended to any SA military medal collectors) and it does list the John Chard Decoration & medal - BUT it does not mention the mystery (ERROR) medal.

I would like to know how it came to be, how many were issued and where/to whom and also how rare it is.

 

[Wessel Gordon]

Marcon1,

I received an order of the De Wet Decoration this week and under 30X magnification with a jeweler's loupe on the miniature it was clearly stamped ''Medal'' and not ''Decoration while the full size medal is stamped ''Decoration''. I also have the De Wet Medal set and if you ignore the ribbon differences and the bronze/silver color difference my miniature de Wet Medal and Decoration is exactly the same thing. But as i said that was under 30X magnification and if you give my collection a casual glance you will never see the mistake.

So it seems these things happen and for some reason it slipped through quality check, assuming there ever was a quality check. 

 

[Shots Dave]

Here is the first version of the medal