Medals, rings and ribbons.

[Dave Kane]

What do you do about rings and ribbons on medals? Do you leave them on or remove them? To clarify I talking about the type of medal where to wear it someone has put a nail through to make a hole then put a ring through for a ribbon or safety pin through to be able to wear the medal.

Medals with rings do not store very well. So do people remove them, leave them on? Would a medal with a ring or ribbon on be more collectable than a medal without? The purist in me says leave everything intact but this means they do not store nicely in albums, coin trays or coin envelopes. One thing I would do though is buy the same medal again if I saw it without a hole as I would consider this as an upgrade.

Dave.

[Art1.2]

I always leave the medal as intact as possible. I store my badges in small jewelry type boxes. I purchased the boxes complete with jewelry safe "foam" liners from a store fixtures catalog place. They were pretty inexpensive and don't discolor the medals/badges within.

 

ANA Badge Bal Harbour 1974 stack2 by UGotaHaveArt, on Flickr

[constanius]

Coins with holes, no good, medals with holes in with original ribbon or attachment are just fine. Many medals were sold both with hole or without, ones that someone drilled or crudely punched later are somewhat less appealing and would be worth upgrading.

[bill]

I keep them intact. For my tastes, original ribbons, badge pieces, etc. when intact are more interesting than the medal portion separated from its original components. None of that is to take away from the value of a piece without the loop or hole if it is original. Many pieces with integrated loops have had them removed over the years to create a "pure" medal. These are damaged in my mind even though the usually bring more money if skillfully done.

 

There are instances of medals that were struck with integrated loops and these were retained or removed depending on how the medal was finished. In this instance, a medal without a loop would be considered original. What do I mean by this?

 

Consider the following die:

 

 

You can see the integrated loop at the top of the medal. When used as a splash die (i.e. struck without a collar so the metal spreads beyond the die edges), the loop would be present and then the medal trimmed to keep or remove the loop depending on the use.

 

Now consider the following so-called dollar:

 

 

The piece without the ears is worth 4 figures, a hundred or two with the ears. All are rare, but I've only seen one without the ears, the piece that happens to be pictured in the standard catalog for so-called dollars. I examined this piece and it clearly had the ears removed, something you could see even though it was in an NGC holder. If you look at the rim just below the ears, you can see small depressions created during the strike because metal is flowing into the loop. The plate medal sold for $1900, I paid $60 for the one pictured here and was low bidder on a similar piece that sold for $250. In my mind, the intact piece as seen here is the more interesting piece. It is simiply a matter of taste but the market values the piece with the ears removed higher than intact pieces. Go figure.

[thedeadpoint]

Love the discussion guys!

[bagerap]

Dave, I've answered this elsewhere but I'll repeat it here as it touches on what Bill wrote.

 

 

This Eton Attendance medal was worn as intended:

 

 

This one has never been pierced and thus never worn:

 

 

It's in far better condition but does it have the same connection? I feel that pieces like this appear to have been disregarded by the original recipients,

I'd much rather have something that's been used.

 

And no, I've yet to work out what to do about pesky rings still attached

[Dave Kane]

I would not consider removing anything that was a part of the original mould of the medal ,it's only rings and ribbons attached via a hole in the medal itself. I would have included pictures but I'm not sure how to add them on this forum. Hello again Bagerap the other forum you mentioned was me thanks for taking an interest.

Dave.

[constanius]

 

This medal was originally supplied with the ring(I have seen a few of this medal with the same ring) and I would never remove it. Someone originally purchased the medal to wear at the time of George's 50th Jubilee, to remove the ring would, to me, be sacrilege.