TOPIC:

Here is a medal that I am not sure of, especially the naming...…



Mike

In my opinion the naming is not 100% Mike although there are so many differing naming conventions it is hard to tell without closer inspection.

Be warned. The SAGS medal is 100% dud. This one is easy to identify. Just look closely at the field behind the date on the clasp. Somewhere out East a source (perhaps more than one) has been making clever coin forgeries for a number of years. One tends to get the “feel” of them when you have had a couple through your hands – the artificial toning etc. Clearly now turning to the medal market. They will get better – and will also become more astute with both engraved and impressed naming.
SA collectors will be aware of the problems with WW1 and WW11 medals in particular – especially where the medals themselves are from “liberated” original unissued official stock. It is a great pity that even some members of this forum have already been caught! It is also well known that innumerable QSA medals have been expertly repaired in South Africa and refitted new replacement suspenders and copy clasps but at least in these instances the named disc itself is usually the one actually presented to the recipient.
In my view it is time that one and all need to be very alert and vociferous. I don’t know the answer. If the collector “experts” advertise the characteristics of the naming of genuine medals this will probably only lead to the forgers becoming more sophisticated.
Make no mistake, our hobby is under threat.

RobM

This is not the first time this medal has appeared on ebay-it surfaced about 2 months ago in amongst a number of other Zulu War medals-if I remember correctly I looked up the recipient on the roll and he was there with all the details lining up. I also didn't like the naming especially what looked like guide lines for the engraving and the style also was not correct- now the background of the clasp has been highlighted it is even more obvious.

Here are the images of the naming:

Well someone got themselves a $400.00 souvenir…..
You would think that if someone was going to sell a doctored medal at least they would get the naming style correct......
Mike