Coin Shows

Have you ever thought of doing a military medals exhibit? I’ve been to a lot of military and gun shows over the years and have often toyed with the idea of exhibiting. Each time I look in to it, I find that the exhibits if any are scattered through out the show, that I would have to pay for the exhibit space and provide my own display cases. Coin Shows on the other hand are very different. They are usually run by local coin clubs with membership dues at less than 10.00 per year. Members can set up exhibits for free and the club usually provides the cases. The exhibits are all in one area making it much easier for the public to find and view the displays.

The Numismatists Of Wisconsin show will be in Iola this weekend and you guessed it, I will be exhibiting military medals at this coin show.

Now here is one you will not see too often. This is the Medal of the Order of Resistance for resisting the WWII German occupation. Exactly what one had to do is unknown to me but in a small country like the Grand Duchy which only had a tiny 500 man armed force I’m sure resistance to the occupation was the only option. The obverse of the medal has Grand Duchess Charlotte’s portrait. The reverse has the Crowned Arms of Luxembourg within a double legend which roughly translates “The People of Luxembourg are grateful to their liberators.” and the inner legend, “We will remain what we are, Luxembourg.”

Researching this medal really brings out how much better coin collectors have it than military medal collectors do when it comes to available books and information. For U.S., British and Germany medals there are plenty of good books but try to find anything off the beaten track like Luxembourg. I sure wish there was a Standard Catalog of World Military Medals.

Peaceniks

No matter which war through out our history there were always people who opposed it. Starting with our own revolutionary war our population was divided in to thirds. One third were in favor of independence, another third remained loyal to the crown and the remaining third just didn’t care one way or the other. The War of 1812 and the Mexican War both had opposition based on moral and legal grounds. The Civil War had some very interesting opposition groups on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line. Some Northerners like the Southerners thought that states had the right to leave a union that they had voluntarily joined and believe it or not the Union army had volunteer units from every one of the Confederate States! Then there were the other issues of slavery, conscription and pacifism to further divide the people. By the time of the Franco-Prussian War the many German immigrants here had reason to cheer for the old team but in most cases issued medals celebrating the return of “Peace” rather than victory. I think the reason for this was so as not to cast any doubt on their loyalty to their new homeland. By the time of the Spanish-American War in 1898 many Americans had begun to fear that the US had become an imperial power seeking colonies. The opposition was significant and the war was short resulting in a medallic vacuum. A national Peace Jubilee was organized and medals like the one below were issued to celebrate the return of “Peace” and not the victory or the war.

This is my interpretation of the history behind this medal, feel free to disagree.

The Chaco War 1932-35 pitted Bolivia against Paraguay for control over the Northern Chaco region which was thought to contain oil deposits. Paraguay started with a small army of 3000 poorly equipped men which they quickly raised to 60,000 men. Bolivia hired German General von Kundt to command their army but the Paraguayan army eventually captured the Bolivian HQ and over 30,000 Bolivian prisoners. A truce on June 12, 1935 ended the fighting. The treaty of Buenos Aires, July 21, 1938, gave Paraguay 75% of the Chaco region and Bolivia an outlet to the South Atlantic via the Paraguay River. Everyone got something so both sides issued a medal and acted like victors. Bolivia issued the multicolor one on the left and Paraguay the bronze cross on the right.

If as a medal collector you want a real challenge start collecting South American medals. The only thing harder to find than the medals themselves are any references about them. If you read Spanish maybe you will have an easier time finding good information than someone who doesn’t.

Once in a while if a collector spends time looking through old military pictures some thing like the one below will surface. Looking somewhat like a cross between a hussar and a bellboy with lots of decoration but few if any medals or badges are the German student groups uniforms. This one is only wearing a fob-like decoration similar the one next to the photo. These student groups (lots of them) which flourished from the early 1800s-1930s were much like fraternities but more militaristic and patriotic in nature. They developed a blood-brotherhood through their ritualistic dueling between the various groups. These duels were often pre-arranged so that every member was assured of getting the required scar badge of honor. The duels were often held in secret with an attending physician and consisted of a series of individual duels between opponents in heavy protective clothing facing off and hacking away at each other without any sword fighting skills as if their feet were rooted to the ground. The only object was to stand your ground until you drew blood or became too bloody to continue. I guess since I can only read about this ritual I will never be able to understand it enough to respect it.

On Feb. 23, 2008 I opened a store front on the ePier internet auction site and used my credit card number to do so as required by ePier. Within 24 hours on Feb. 24, 2008 fraudulent charges started appearing on my credit card account! I cancelled the site 3 days later but ePier still had the gall to post the charge! Need I say more?

Veterans ladder badges come in various configurations not all of which look like ladders. All are private purchase pieces engraved with the veteran’s name , unit and usually a date or dates. The first of these appeared during the Civil War and were sold to soldiers who wanted some sort of unit insignia. Civil War era badges don’t carry the dates 1861-65. Badges with those dates are post war issues and strictly veterans items. Similar badges like these continued to be made and worn until the First World War and are mostly linked to the various state national guard units. What makes these so collectible is that they are so researchable. Illustrated below for example is one from Wisconsin. The top bar has “CO. D” which means the original owner was a member of Company D. The second bar from the top, “1st REG. “ tells us that Company D was part of the First Regiment. The third bar “DARLINGTON” tells us the name of Company D’s home town. On the pendent we find “WIS.” above two crossed rifles and “N.G” which tells us Co. D and the 1st regt. are part of the Wisconsin National Guard. The crossed rifles indicate that this was an infantry unit. The 1897 date is the year this badge was purchased probably by a young guardsman attending his first training camp. The guardsman’s name “W. A. Campbell” is at the bottom. Checking my old Wisconsin Blue Books I found that this unit was first organized July 8, 1884 as the Darlington Rifles and was designated Company K at the time. Campbell was not an officer so tracking down his history will be much harder if I ever get that ambitious.

Collectors are the mother-lode of specialized information and most collectors are eager to share the information which they have spent a life time accumulating for the good of the hobby, and they do it for free! Just look at the history of Krause Publications which has spent the last 50 years collecting all this free information from collectors of coins, cars etc. and then repackaging all that information into a concentrated, convenient and portable format which they then sell back into the collecting market. Collectors of military medals are the same. All one needs do is to look at the many forums on the internet. Even on eBay where it is least expected this generous collector sharing occurs. Last week for example I listed the US Maritime Commission Merit Award illustrated below on eBay as silver in one of my not so brilliant moments. Within a few days a fellow eBayer specializing in these awards emailed me a correction. This good Samaritan collector also has a web-site which is so fantastic that I just have to share it with you all http://www.geocities.com/ssgtedusmc/ this site is a keeper! If this is what just one dedicated collector can do the future sure looks promising.

Bill and Fritz

As collectors of military medals we all eventually will see some interesting picture postcards. When I look at my collection of post cards I start seeing some historic parallels with our times. For example below we have two pictures, Kaiser Wilhelm II whom I will call Bill and an unknown German soldier of the First World War whom I shall name Fritz.

Bill thought of himself as a great military leader and was bedecked with lots of glorious orders and medals which he earned for his great war time leadership while entrenched in his palaces and yachts; yes yachts, Bill was an Admiral too. After Bill had led his country to defeat and ruin he took his golden parachute and jumped across the border to a comfortable retirement in the Netherlands.

Fritz on the other hand survived four years in the trenches enduring untold hardships and misery. For his services Fritz was lucky if he got any medals at all, perhaps an Iron Cross II Class if he was really lucky. When Fritz came home he found his family sick and near death from starvation and disease. His economy was ruined, he had no job, no pension and no golden parachute.

Tell me do you see it too? Bill was the CEO of the bankrupt corporation German Empire Inc. Bill was also indicted but was safely beyond the reach of justice while Fritz, his former employee, was rewarded for his loyal and honorable service with a place of honor in the unemployment line. No golden parachute for Fritz, just a bleak future built with false promises.

As history repeats itself, only the names change.

I have been thinking about opening a Paypal account so I read their legal agreement terms. I ran across some very frightening terms and not being a lawyer was wondering if I might not be understanding the terms correctly. Some questions about the Paypal legal agreement terms that I have are: if a problem like a complaint against me comes up I know they can limit my access to my Paypal account but can they also limit my access to my own bank accounts and credit cards which they refer to as “funding sources”?

Paypal can require at their option that I maintain a cash reserve and they Do Not have to pay interest on that amount?

Paypal can fine an account 2500.00 for unacceptable transactions involving porn, drugs, gambling or tobacco. Paypal rules and definitions are the same as eBay rules so I assume they could possibly also fine an account for any other forbidden transactions. I do not deal in porn, drugs, gambling or tobacco but what about a law enforcement badge or a nazi medal with a swastika on it? I have been known to buy and sell these from time to time. I have heard from others who have been accused of violating eBay rules that they were condemned without due process which is fine when limited to a privately owned internet site. But I will not subject my personal finances to such arbitrary dictates. I am simply too much of a control freak to permit that.

I have asked Paypal these questions and some polite guy with a name that sounds like he might be from India simply sent me links to the Paypal terms and agreements, I guess he didn’t understand that I had already read their terms and that is why I had these questions. What do you think?

Collectors of military medals usually find themselves thinking of soldiers enduring great hardships, accomplishing heroic feats and sometimes dying in battle. Rarely do they think about the dead soldier’s next of kin. In the US the mothers of soldiers who died in war are known as Gold Star Mothers. After WWI there was an organization for Gold Star Mothers and in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s this group made several pilgrimages to visit the graves of fallen American soldiers in European cemeteries. A medal was issued for participating in these trips and illustrated below is such a medal as part of a privately assembled group of medals all belonging to a Gold Star Mother. Not knowing anything more about these medals I can only guess that the original owner of these medals was from Wisconsin and that she was a good shot who was willing to travel to Florida to compete or relocated there. The gold star pin above the group was established by Congress in 1947 and is not part of the illustrated group of medals.

Advice to New (and old) Collectors

A lot of collector sites have advice for the new collector. The tried and true wisdom that we have all heard before like, buy the book first and always buy the highest quality you can afford. To that sage advice I would add two things; first after you buy the book be sure to read the introductions which usually contain a gold mine of basic information.

Second and you will not read this anywhere else that I know of: Don't run with the herd.

Find a field or specialty that isn't being collected by everyone else. If possible find something that interests you but isn't popular and blaze your own trail. Within a few years you will develop a reputation and people will be coming to you as the expert. Instead of paying the inflated prices of the highly collected areas you will be on the ground level finding all sorts of interesting bargains. For example I started collecting US state and local issue war service medals and German states medals in the mid 1960's. Everyone else that I knew was into nazi stuff. I was asked once 'why do you keep beating yourself to death with that junk?" Well they are still in the nazi stuff and I hope they are happy with it. When I look at all that I have collected I know I have made the right choice. The current prices in my collecting specialties have validated my choice financially. My personal satisfaction is immeasurable and all at a fraction of the cost that the nazi stuff would have cost me over the years. Follow your heart over the long haul and you will never regret it. Fred

I have been collecting medals and badges of the German veterans groups in America for many years. The field is huge, uncataloged and the German terminology and use of abbreviations can be a challenge even to someone who can read the German. Here is an example using the scan below. The cross on the left is black enamel on silver. The inscription “DEUTSCHER KRIEGER VEREIN S.F.” translates as German Soldiers (war veterans) Association San Francisco. The key word here is Verein which usually but not always implies a local group.

The next item is a similar cross inscribed “DEUTSHER KRIEGER BUND N.A.” which translates as German Soldiers League (or union) of North America. The word Bund used here usually but not always indicates an organization on a state or national level. This cross is suspended from a brooch of crossed cannons and two shields, one American and the other German. The front cannon is inscribed with the initials “D.M.V.E.” which probably means “DEUTSCHER MILITAER VEREIN E….” German Military (including peace time veterans) Association “ and the letter “E” which is an abbreviation for a place name that begins with that letter. In this case probably another place in California since the enameling on both crosses looks like the work of one manufacturer.