In the field of military medal collecting sooner than later everyone learns about relic medals. Simply defined a relic medal is one that is made by recycling old metal usually in the form of captured cannons. This means that only winners issue relic medals though there is probably an exception to this rule out there somewhere that I don’t know about. When I started looking around as a young collector I was quickly amazed at how many well known medals are relic medals. The two best known examples are the British Victoria Cross and the United States Medal of Honor. So few of these are awarded that I don’t think they will ever run out of the metal needed to make them with. Others are much more common but just think of how many medals could be made out of just one old bronze cannon. The most common relic medal and one of my favorites would be the German Franco-Prussian War service medal for combatants. Each one of these have the edge inscription “AUS EROBERTEM GESCHUTZ” (with the two little dots above the letter u in the last word) which translates, from captured cannon.. While this was technically a Prussian medal it was awarded nation wide to every combatant regardless of which German state they came from.

Here we have a gold award medal inscribed “U. W. REGIMENTAL PRIZE DRILL” on an otherwise plain cross and wreath shaped medal. The brooch is inscribed with the name “Lee H. Huntley” which presented me with a research challenge. As it turned out Mr. Huntley was University of Wisconsin Class of 1908 and won this military ROTC (then known as the Corps of Cadets) award for drill in 1906. He graduated with a civil engineering degree and never spent day in the military or earned any other military medals. So here we have a single military medal which is also one man’s complete group.

Illustrated below is a US Navy Good Conduct Medal that I found in an estate. It is in mint condition and looks too good to be true. This medal is the rare first round medal version issued from 1880-1884. The size of this medal is an unusual 40mm in diameter which is an important red flag. Every other Navy Good Conduct I have seen is 32-33mm in size. My medal books don’t mention size when describing these medals so I posted this item on the US Militaria Forum site which is a site everyone reading this blog should visit. http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ . There I was quickly informed that the 40mm version is a “Collectors Copy” which got me to think that now would be a good time to discuss terminology. The terms Fake, Jewelers copy and collector copy as I see it should be defined as follows. Fake; an exact copy made to fool collectors with fraudulent intent. Collectors Copy; an inexact copy made for collectors to use as a space filler but with enough differences that knowledgable persons can tell the difference, in this case the wrong size. Jewelers Copy; these are usually exact copies made by authorized manufacturers and only sold as wearing or replacement copies which originally could only be sold to people who had earned the right to wear them. This is very common in the German issues especially in the higher orders and decorations. Jewelers copies are usually easy to spot due to lower material and workmanship quality.

The Greedy State of Wisconsin and other states have been collecting sales tax on postage for several years now. I can understand that when paying for the shipment of a purchased item by mail the handling fees like any other service would be taxable but not the actual postage charged by the United States Post Office which is still part of the Federal Government. No state has the legal right to tax the Federal Government. If you think I am wrong in this view, ask yourself why is it that when you go to the post office and ship a parcel or buy some stamps the post office does not charge sales tax on these transactions. Granted it is easier to charge the sales tax on the entire amount rather than to separate the taxable handling charges from the actual postage but it still is wrong to do so. Since the amount of money per transaction or per individual is too small to justify a privately funded law suit no one has yet challenged this illegal taxation. Maybe it is time to consider a class action suit? Any lawyers out there? If so please feel free to chime in.

What’s better than a lot of broken glass and spilled champagne? As a military medal collector I would say adding another medal to my collection. It is traditional when launching a ship to smash a bottle of bubbly against it’s hull. Fortunately it is also a tradition to issue souvenir medals on such occasions. I don’t know much about this category of medals other than they seem to be rare. I’m also not sure if the terms “Launching” and “Christening” mean the same thing when it comes to ships. In any event I will illustrate the only two such medals I have come across in my years of medal collecting. The first one is for the launch of the USS Tennessee in 1919. The Tenn. earned 10 battle stars during WWII and was sold for scrap 1959, the same year that construction was started on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk which in turn will be decommissioned in 2008.

Here we have three different medals that are very different and yet also the same. After years of collecting I have come across about half a dozen of this type of military medal but will only use three in the scan. The medals are all very different at first glance from the basic radiant eagle design to the very unique and beautiful designs of the other two. All are different shapes. The medal on the ribbon is what I call a classic design of the First World War era. The second is a locally inspired design featuring a church which was a local landmark somewhere unknown to me. The third is a generic design found on many obverses of locally issued service medals from the First and Second World Wars.

Some similarities of the three medals are that all are bronze and intended to be worn suspended from a ribbon. All three were made circa 1919 and all three have blank reverses with only the makers identification on them. Most local service medal types have reverses with die struck designs and inscriptions stating the issuer and reason for the issue along with a space where the recipient’s name could be engraved. Few medals would have been issued with the intention of engraving the reverse locally. So why are these all the same? I believe that they are salesman’s samples. After WWI an army of salesmen canvassed the country trying to sell the idea of locally issued service medals and since there was no Federal WWI service medal until 1921 these salesmen were very successful. Thousands of different local types exist which is why most collectors limit their collections to only a few states and no one knows for sure how many medals would make up a complete set.

 George Rogers Clark Medal

Starting at the beginning George Rogers Clark (1752-1818) was born in Charlottesville, Virginia Nov. 19, 1752.He was the older brother of William Clark who was the Clark in the famous Lewis and Clark expedition. His military service began as a scout in Lord Dunmore’s war of 1774. Clark then settled in Kentucky and organized the militia defense against the hostile Indian allies of the British during the revolutionary war. About this time Clark was promoted to Lt.-Colonel and made Commander of the Kentucky frontier militia. In 1778 Clark led a 175 man expedition down the Ohio and into Illinois where on July 4 they captured Kaskaskia and then Cahokia and Vincennes in August of the same year. Vincennes had to be recaptured Feb. 25, 1779. Now as a Brigadier General Clark led a successful expedition against the Shawnee and repelled a British and Indian attack on the then Spanish settlement of St. Louis in 1780. In Jan. of 1781 he assisted in repelling attacks led by Benedict Arnold. From 1783-1786 Clark was the US Indian Commissioner and led an expedition against the Wabash tribes. During the 1790’s Clark was involved in several failed French and Spanish colonization schemes trying to better himself financially and then retired to Louisville, Kentucky until his death Feb. 13, 1818.

The medal, 20 x 34.4mm is bronze and in the shape of a stone arrow head with Clark's portrait on the obverse facing to the left. The inscription “KY GEORGE ROGERS CLARK TRACE” is above and below the portrait. (What is meant by the word “Trace” is unknown to me.) The reverse is blank except for the makers name “Medal Arts Co. Roch. N. Y. " The ribbon is faded and discolored but the original colors were probably blue and white. My guess is that this medal was made in the 1920's and is rarely seen on that large internet auction site.

Nature abhors a vacuum and so does human nature. After the First World War a defeated Germany found itself in a vacuum. The imperial and royal governments had fallen. The weak Weimar Republican government had so completely disavowed war and the military that it refused to issue any medals for WWI service. Millions of veterans who served honorably and suffered so many hardships (as did the veterans on all sides) came home to a government that wanted to forget the last 4 ¼ years. To fill this medallic void numerous German veteran and patriotic groups issued a flood of WWI service awards. Even some former allied countries like Austria, Bulgaria and Hungary issued medals. The medals were sold to anyone who felt that they were entitled to wear a particular medal. As a result medal groups can be found with many interesting combinations of medals which often are totally unverifiable. The field is vast and not yet completely cataloged. One could spend a life time just collecting these unofficial awards. Illustrated below are just four of the better looking examples, one from each of the former kingdoms of the Germany Empire: Bavaria, Prussia, Saxony and Wuerttemberg. Take a close look and see if you can figure out which is which.