Military Cross - Royal cipher

[Wessel Gordon]

I received a full sized copy of the above medal and it has a Royal cipher on it I can't decipher. I'm guessing it could be ER for Elizabeth Rex but that's sucking on my thumb and wishful thinking. 

I also have a miniature copy with the Royal cipher reading GRI. I am assuming GRI is George Rex Imperator so the only two possible King Georges it could refer to is either George V or George VI. 

According to research on Wikipedia it was instituted in 1914 during the reign of George V so (in theory) there's only four monarchs in who's name it could have been issued: George V,  Edward VIII (since he reigned for roughly 11 months i think he can be discounted for practical purposes), George Vi and Elizabeth II.

I am only uploading the image of the full-sized version since, as I mentioned, GRI seems to indicate to me only two possibilities.

[Mike McLellan]

GvR. 

Cheers. Mike 

[Wessel Gordon]

Mike,

Thanks a lot but that immediately leads me to the question: is it safe to assume then that GRI on the miniature (which by the way is much easier to read) indicate George VI? My thinking about that assumption is that there's only so much space at the center of the medal for a cipher and that the ''V'' COULD have been dropped to fit into that space. Obviously there's another George in line for the throne but at the age of 6 I highly doubt he's issuing military medals, lol.

[Wessel Gordon]

I guess using that assumption the reverse could also apply that the miniature copy is from George V's reign and not George Vi but that would mean one of two things:

1. George V used two ciphers for whatever reason - all of his other ciphers indicate GvR so that argument doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

2. That who-ever manufactured the copy (which isn't the best quality even at first glance) either didn't know or care to use the correct royal cipher and thought ''GRI'' could refer to both Georges and who-ever bought the medal could interpret it as they wished.

[Herman]

Hi Wessel,

 

Your MC is a copy of the George V WW1 type. If you do a Google search you'll  find the George VI, WW2 type and the Elizabeth II type  aswell.

I enclose a picture of an original WW1 MC.

 

Regards 

Herman 

Edited July 27, 2019 by Herman

[Wessel Gordon]

And Bingo: exact match.

Thanks Mike and Herman.

My collection is more focused on SADF medals (circa 1945-1990's) and of those I have I would estimate 90% plus simply have the old South African Coat of Arms on the reverse or obverse so with UK medals I'm in murky waters when I run into a royal cipher that (according to which images I run into on the net) looks like one thing but when I have an actual copy in my hand the cipher looks different. For a while I thought the ''GRI'' on my miniature stood for ''Generally Really Irrelevant''.

[Wessel Gordon]

I at last discovered the monarch to which my MC miniature can be attributed. It's known as a George VI Type 1 according to Megan Robertson's medals.org.uk.