medals cost

[ianw]

They are finding their true value due to the ease with which they can be researched and the equal ease with which they can be exposed for sale to a world of collectors. They won't get any cheaper as we approach 2014.

[Guest Rundberg]

Nice to hear that, I think that why British & Commonwealth medals are so personnel they unlike many other countries medals, our medals already have a thread to the person it was awarded to engraved on there rim.

Amen to that. Otherwise I would probably ended up collecting nice looking medals from a country with a better price level. Am I going to take a lot of flak if I confess that there are some decent looking french medals for instance?

If they were named and researchable I would even been interested....

Chris

[27thBN]

They are finding their true value due to the ease with which they can be researched and the equal ease with which they can be exposed for sale to a world of collectors. They won't get any cheaper as we approach 2014.

Well im not going to lie I would be nice for the medals to have a bit of an up spike ,most times i sell off a group i lose on the sale i have had the enjoyment and research but still its very expensive especially with what i collect

MC

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

...Yes but at least you had a much bigger selection to buy back then my best groups now came from late 80s .

Not really there were fewer such awards on the Market; full stop.There were not the number of Collectors either,indeed some Medals would stay on a Dealer's Lists for months!!! {What chance of that today};Collecting tended to be a more paroachial hobby; sourcing the items from Local Dealers, or a trip once in a Blue Moon to the Smoke,or searching the Junk/Antique Shops whilst on Holiday... Many Veterans were still in their 60s & still very active in RBL;OCA; etc; activities & the awards were in the Family,still the first generation {ie Sons & Daughters,@ least,} Now many are being disposed of by Grandchildren & Great Grandchildren,to whom a long past War is only a mention in a History Book @ School {if they are lucky}.The "www" has opened up the market considerably I would not have imagined in 1965,to be able to buy Medals from across the world, as I have been able to over the past five years,cost has increased but disposable income has increased also,perhaps not at the same ratio.

Long may it continue...

[Tinhat47]

I still don't own a trio and have just a few pairs because of the prices. Most of mine are just singles that have been separated from their mates over the years, I suppose.

[27thBN]

Not really there were fewer such awards on the Market; full stop.There were not the number of Collectors either,indeed some Medals would stay on a Dealer's Lists for months!!! {What chance of that today};Collecting tended to be a more paroachial hobby; sourcing the items from Local Dealers, or a trip once in a Blue Moon to the Smoke,or searching the Junk/Antique Shops whilst on Holiday... Many Veterans were still in their 60s & still very active in RBL;OCA; etc; activities & the awards were in the Family,still the first generation {ie Sons & Daughters,@ least,} Now many are being disposed of by Grandchildren & Great Grandchildren,to whom a long past War is only a mention in a History Book @ School {if they are lucky}.The "www" has opened up the market considerably I would not have imagined in 1965,to be able to buy Medals from across the world, as I have been able to over the past five years,cost has increased but disposable income has increased also,perhaps not at the same ratio.

Long may it continue...

Well in the main very true i suppose with one exception VC groups i have various catalogs issue 1 Stanley gibbons vc group to a drummer july 1979 asking price 9300 pounds ,another 8950 and in a couple of other catalogs similar .You never will see a VC again in a dealers list ,especially at anywhere near theses prices even though at the time thought expensive ,a super bargain a gift in same catalog a Trafalgar ngs to an officer on victory was selling at 4800 pounds as a example . less than double for a VC these days the same is at least 120000 pounds and Trafalgar to an officer on victory say 12000 pounds

,but that's the way it goes if we had any idea of what a VC would be worth now .Think of what you would have bought even if you had to sell body parts to pay for them.

MC

[Old Owl]

Hi,

Yes, how things have changed!! I remember persuading my father that a V.C. would be a good investment circa the late 1980's, can't remember exactly!, but the group to Capt A.Henderson, A & S Highlanders, V.C., M.C, 1914/15 Trio and Memorial plaque came up in one of the London auctions. We placed a bid with the representative of one of the London Dealers at the time and even provided a bankers reference, only to receive a call from them the day before the sale to say that as we were not well known to them they regretably could not represent us, and, not having the contacts , knowledge or time to go to the sale in person, we let it go!! The group sold for £14,500-00 plus commissions. I often wish that I had been a little more forthright and knowledgeable in those days; I certainly would not have given in so easily given the same circumstances now!! But such is life. Seize the opportunity when it arises, he who hesitates is lost!!

On a lighter note and in my early days of collecting, I went to a medal fair one sunday morning and spotted in a coin dealers case a Military Cross, Military Medal and 1914/15 Star Trio, all spread around the display case. I asked the dealer if they all went together, to which he replied "yes, and he died during the war you know" and said he wanted £170 for them or £95 for the M.C. and £75 for the M.M. and Trio. As I only had £50 cash I paid this as a deposit and did a thirty mile round trip to borrow the balance(no ATM's in those days) and he wouldn't take a cheque. I still have the group, although I did part with it briefly in a swop and then bought it back. I just wish I had had more cash to spend in those days!!

An equally interesting and definitely scarcer combination of medals which I purchased in more recent years is a D.C.M.(V.R.), M.M.(G.V.), Q.S.A., K.S.A.,B.W.M. and V.M. all to the same man and regiment, with a break between the Boer War and WW1, who was Kia in September, 1916, and there is no entitlement to a star, Phew!! I'm not sure how many similar combinations there are, but I suspect that they may struggle to get into double figures when you take into account that he was kia as well?

Unfortunately prices today for double/triple gallantry certainly are very strong and continue to rise despite the current crisis, but then with interest rates at virtually zero for savers I suppose more collectors become investors and as such the two things go 'hand in hand' as never before, or certainly with a different slant on things! I'm not sure that I could afford to start collecting nowadays.

Good Hunting, Robert

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

...You never will see a VC again in a dealers list

The last one [A large group of around 8/9 Medals including TFWM & a renamed TFEM] I saw was on Guissepi Michaeli's,of Northampton ,list in the early 1990s,which had a Price tag IIRC of around £42,000 & was published on his lists in the Medal News for a number of months,I think it finally ended up in Auction {Allen White VC iirc}

if only....

[27thBN]

Back in the those days the internet was just getting started ,hence low world exposure ,well thats the way things were ALAS

I also suppose in UK you have many ,many more dealers in Australia HAHA about 4 that are worthwhile dealing with !!!!

MC