I was at the ANA convention last week and didn't have time to do my blog. Did you miss me? Probably not, but I did pick up a this really neat Swiss Franco-Prussian War medal. Yes I did mean Swiss! Switzerland as we all know is a traditionally neutral country sharing a border with two larger frequently feuding countries. The Swiss also knew, as Belgium learned in 1914, that simply declaring neutrality is not enough. In 1870 when the Franco-Prussian War broke out General Hans Herzog posted 50,000 troops along Switzerland's western and northern borders to prevent any violation of Swiss neutrality. In Feb. 1871 the Swiss forces disarmed and interned 80,000  French soldiers who crossed the border seeking sanctuary from the German forces and provided them with badly needed medical care and shelter. This very impressive bronze medal was issued to commemorate those events. The obverse portrays General Herzog while  the reverse features a standing Helvetia with sword at the ready. The French legend roughly translates "Swiss Neutrality, Souvenir of the Federal Army's faithful service from 16 July 1870 to 25 March 1871".   I don't know if this medal was awarded to anyone or if it was simply a private purchase item. Does anyone know?

I was in the Chicago area last week doing some family visiting. As good fortune would have it my sister-in-law took us to an antique mall in one of the suburbs and we got there a good half hour before they closed. My wife asked the clerk if any booths had military medals and the nice lady took us to three that had large amounts of military items for sale. The first two had nothing of interest to me but the third made my day. I asked the lady to open a case and let me see what looked like a breast star of the modern version of the old Persian Order of the Lion and Sun, now called the Nischan-el-Homayoun. As soon as I had it in hand I saw that it had a loop and ring for a ribbon suspension and even though it was missing the ribbon it still came with a very hefty price tag. I passed on it saying it was only an incomplete III class and therefore much too expensive for me. There was an instant expression of shock and disbelief on the lady's face. "Well" she said, "this booth belongs to a dealer who is on The Antiques Road Show and he is one of their military experts!" "That's nice" I replied not wanting to alienate her any further, "now can I please see those Soviet Orders?" Out came four beautiful orders including the Red Banner of Labor type 4 with the hydro dam, Labor Glory III Class with the tower and my favorite, the Badge of Honor Type III variety 3 with the two workers, all illustrated below plus the Order of the Red Star and all for less than the Iranian order would have cost me.

Dealers are generalists and as such they usually have an extensive broad based knowledge that can be very impressive but the collector who has done his homework and has more specialized interests will almost always come out on top : advantage collector.

The Mexican-USA border has been a problem for over a century. Back in 1916 after a long series of Mexican bandit raids into the US often with the backing of Mexican government officials, President Wilson called up the National Guard to protect our southern border. As usual the federal government was slow to issue the troops service medals to honor their efforts. A fairly common private issue then surfaced and is often assumed to be an official medal which it is not. The obverse looks like the VFW radiant cross with the US arms in the center and the legend "United States National Guard." The reverse is most interesting in that it lists a time line of events leading up to the call up and beyond with an 11 line inscription "RAID / COLUMBUS, N.M. MARCH 9TH / GLEN SPRINGS, TEX. MAY 6TH / SAN YGNACIO, TEX.  JUNE 14 / NATIONAL GUARD CALLED TO THE COLORS JUNE 18TH / AMBUSH AT CARRAZIL, MEX JUNE 21ST." At the bottom the medal is signed "Arthur Killean, Grand Haven Michigan who was one of two makers of this medal, the other being Schwaab of Milwaukee.

Well that same border is still in turmoil today. Drug runners and desperately poor Mexicans are swarming over that border everyday. Historically any country that couldn't control it's borders or was lacking the will power to do so ceased to exist in short order. Therefore in my opinion it is time for an "iron curtain" borrowing Churchill's term, to descend on our border sealing it up so tight that not even a roach could cross without being noticed. At the same time the US should set up offices on the Mexican side of the border to help the millions of honest hard working Mexicans enter the American economy without running the risk of death in the desert or exploitation by unscrupulous employers taking advantage of their illegal status. Sure it would cost a lot of money but then again how much money are we wasting on a war based on a lie?

This one comes up now and again often with people thinking it could be a rare Nazi Party membership pin variety, but no it's not.

The badge illustrated below was handed to Clifford Mishler by a local with the usual "what is it" question and Cliff then passed the question on to me thereby giving me some blog fodder. The black enameled circle has the lettering,"D.V.G." = Deutsche Volks Gemeinschaft. "Westmark (Lothr.)" = Westmark(Lothringen) which roughly translates: German People's Community of the Westmark(Lorraine). By "community" the Nazis were referring to a co-operative like association of Germans living in the former French province of Lorraine. Their use of the term "mark" digs deep into history when a mark was a buffer state established on your borders and settled by your nationals. Austria was called the Ost (East) mark and the Lorraine became the Westmark. So what we have here is a regional association membership badge instead of a Nazi Party membership badge and a badge that I think is much scarcer than the more common Nazi Party membership badges.

Every now and then there is a news story on tv about how poorly our schools are doing which then usually shows people who either can't find their town on a map or do so with great difficulty. Geography isn't one of  America's strong suits. Well, as we all know "there is nothing new under the sun." Even some of our great-grandparents had similar problems. Case in point: in 1906 the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis incorporated itself as a city and had a watch fob made up to comemorate the event. The reverse of the fob proudly features the new city seal which had only one minor problem; the name West Allis was misspelled as one word. What about the obverse? Like most fobs of the era the state seal was called for and the manufacturer picked a really good one with a knight's helmet on top and two bears at the sides. I guess they must have thought that West Allis was really in Missouri. I wonder who had to grin and bear it that time ?