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.