Gentlemen,
Many years ago I tended to buy victorian medals to the British Army if they were being sold with service papers, this was because I knew how rare surviving papers actually were at the TNA Kew, so if I had the chance to buy two medals, same clasps to the same Regt, I'd buy the one with the papers.

What are your thoughts on original ribbon, if you saw two medals that you wanted but could only afford one, would your decision be influenced by one of these medals having a nice piece of original silk ribbon?
Or would you just want a medal and be quite unconcerned about the ribbon on it?
I feel todays ribbon is pretty awful, sometimes the actual shades of colour are wrong when compared to the original that was issued with a particular medal!
I recently bought a Cape of Good Hope GSM, though delighted with the medal, the ribbon left much to be desired, I have now however been able to obtain a small amount of oringinal silk ribbon, enough to remount all of my Cape GSM's if I so wished.

Would be interested to know what other peoples thoughts are on this.

Kind regards Frank

Frank

I like yourself prefer to buy medals with service papers, in terms of research they are very helpful for finding cencus details etc.
Your views on ribbons I agree with to a point, if the medal has its original ribbon that would be a bonus, but if I saw a medal I wanted with replacement ribbon it would not stop me buying it.
Original ribbons do "match" the medal in terms of age and character, sometimes a new ribbon tends to look a little sterile.

Paul