Fraudulently named South African WW1 Medals

[stiletto_33853]

Very interesting article in Decmbers OMRS Journal by Pierce Noonan of Dix, Noonan Webb.

"A number of fraudulently named groups of South African Issue First World War medals have emerged onto the market recently. Some of them have been enhanced by the addition of unnamed awards and decorations such as the Military Cross, the Order of the British Empire and the Serbian Gold Medal of Zeal. Mentioned in Despatches oakleaves have also been added.

What makes this such a worrying development is that the medals themselves are genuine and accurately reflect the services of the men whose names they bear. These 1914-15 Stars, British War Medals and bilingual South African issue Victory Medals were issued unamed by the authorities and have subsequently and recently been fraudulently named."

"On closer inspection we bacame suspicious of the fact that all the campaign medals were in absolutely mint condition with an overall appearance of having never been issued. We were, however, compleely satisfied that the medals were original strikings, so the problem therefore had to lie in the naming.

We then learned that for some time now the South African medal office has been issuing, for a charge, unnamed 1914-15 Stars, British War Medals and bilingual Victory Medals to the next of kin of those families who can prove entitlement.

The reason for the issuing of blank medals, it would see, is that the South African authorities no longer possess a machine capable of impressing the name on medals, the original equipment having been scrapped by the South African Mint many years ago."

Hope this article is of interest

Andy

[Archer]

What makes this such a worrying development is that the medals themselves are genuine and accurately reflect the services of the men whose names they bear.

It gets worse. There are some that are quite simply stamped with fantasy names. There was a 1914-15 Star trio doing the rounds in June this year to a unit that was only raised in 1917.

Look out eBay, Speedbid, etc., aficionados - these baubles are on the way!

[Guest Hill 60]

that the South African authorities no longer possess a machine capable of impressing the name on medals, the original equipment having been scrapped by the South African Mint many years ago

This seems to be the case with medals re-issued by the Canadians. I have the replacement 1914-15 Trio to my Gt Grandfather, all the medals were issued blank.

[DirtyDick]

I may be wrong, but I thought both South Africa, following a switch to national as opposed to Commonwealth awards in the 1950s, and Canada, following the Korean War, stopped issuing named campaign medals, no doubt in order to cut costs and administrative hassle.

Richard

[Archer]

I may be wrong, but I thought both South Africa, following a switch to national as opposed to Commonwealth awards in the 1950s, ... stopped issuing named campaign medals

The Republican era medals were (are) numbered - i.e. the piece is numbered - and in theory you can tie the piece number to the recipient.

In practice of course medals got mixed up and recipients got the the wrong piece, etc., etc.

But that is a red herring.

First World War replacement medals and late claimant awards were named up by the authorities until relatively recently.

Same with Second World War medals. But these are now issued unnamed and unnumbered.

William