Basic Information
Recently on the Numismatic News site I was asked the following question: Friday, March 11, 2011 2:10:45 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
This is more of a request than comment. For some of us less knowledgeable readers, would you share resources to help us with the collection of medals, ribbons, etc. What books, price guides, etc. should we have in our library? Where can we most likely find medals worth collecting? Thanks, Charlie.
Very good question ! First of all when thinking of books for military medal collecting we are not going to find anything as easy to use and complete as the books available to our coin collecting brethren. To be a military medal collector one must be a pioneer. Be prepared to do your own foot work and research. Buying medals is like hunting, aside from dealer lists and ebay I am always prowling antique , coin and gun shows. When an interesting medal of local issue is found the first place I look for information is a public library where they usually have local newspapers on micro film. Most importantly form and become part of a collector net work. Collectors more than any other group I know enjoy helping out and sharing information. The first thing a collector should do is to visit and register on the following sites: The Orders and Medals Society of America (OMSA) http://www.omsa.org/forums/index.php OMSA is the best all purpose group for any military medal collector. The amount of knowledge available there is mind boggling. If interested in U.S. medals The US Militaria Forum is a must : http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ . For all German medal collectors, not just of the nazi era, the Wehrmacht Awards site is the place you want to be : http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/. All these sites are very friendly and have free access but you must register to ask questions and post messages which is perfectly safe. There is one more site that all collectors regardless of what they collect should visit on a regular basis : http://www.collectorsweekly.com/categories. Collectors Weekly is a fairly new and up and coming site with unlimited potential. In this era of dying hard copy publishing this type of site is our future. Currently the most useful feature is that for every collecting field listed on that site there is a link showing all the current ebay listings and another for the completed ebay listings of items in that field! No matter what type of information is needed go to these sites and ask; the results will make everyone feel good about our collecting fraternity.
