Welcome, Guest
Username: Password: Remember me
  • Page:
  • 1

TOPIC:

Descriptions of medals for sale 4 years 3 months ago #67072

  • davidh
  • davidh's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • Senior Member
  • Senior Member
  • Posts: 395
  • Thank you received: 234
Further to my post relating to 5th Lancer descriptions in the Elandslaagte clasp thread there are two more common medal descriptions that grind my gears.

One is dealers and sellers stating that a man's papers are stamped 'Deceased' with the assumption that he died on service. After his discharge from the army a soldier's papers became his pension papers and only when the pensioner died (often in his 70s, 80s or even older) were his papers stamped 'Deceased'. A very well known dealer recently had, and may well still have, a QSA for sale stating that the recipient died on service in 1901 on the basis that his papers were stamped 'Deceased' whereas he was in fact discharged medically unfit in 1901 and died an OAP in 1942.

The other one is when dealers and sellers make a big deal of QSAs that have ghost dates (or commonly 'clear ghost dates'), with this description in capital letters as if it's a rarity and not infrequently a premium on the price. The fact is that not only aren't ghost dated QSAs scarce they're actually quite common. I once read, but can't recall the source, that fully a third of all QSAs issued had ghost dates. A friend of mine who is well known in the medal collecting world asked another well known dealer if he could look at a QSA on his table at a fair. The dealer went straight into warp speed about the "clear ghost dates" on the medal but was left speechless when my friend replied, "That's OK. You can get rid of them with a bit of silver dip." Personally I couldn't care less whether a QSA has ghost dates or not and I certainly wouldn't pay a premium for one on that basis.

Maybe others have a different view.

David
The following user(s) said Thank You: Henk Loots

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Descriptions of medals for sale 4 years 3 months ago #67078

  • djb
  • djb's Avatar
  • Away
  • Administrator
  • Administrator
  • Posts: 31550
  • Thank you received: 4500
David,

I think we all share your frustrations on these issues. I remember one dealer putting the word 'ghost' in capital letters to further emphasis the rarity.
Dr David Biggins

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Descriptions of medals for sale 4 years 3 months ago #67081

  • Frank Kelley
  • Frank Kelley's Avatar
  • Offline
  • Senior Member
  • Senior Member
  • Posts: 6739
  • Thank you received: 954
My own view would be simply that an average dealer has a different agenda than a collector, despite the fact that in some cases, he may well have once been a collector himself.


davidh wrote: Further to my post relating to 5th Lancer descriptions in the Elandslaagte clasp thread there are two more common medal descriptions that grind my gears.

One is dealers and sellers stating that a man's papers are stamped 'Deceased' with the assumption that he died on service. After his discharge from the army a soldier's papers became his pension papers and only when the pensioner died (often in his 70s, 80s or even older) were his papers stamped 'Deceased'. A very well known dealer recently had, and may well still have, a QSA for sale stating that the recipient died on service in 1901 on the basis that his papers were stamped 'Deceased' whereas he was in fact discharged medically unfit in 1901 and died an OAP in 1942.

The other one is when dealers and sellers make a big deal of QSAs that have ghost dates (or commonly 'clear ghost dates'), with this description in capital letters as if it's a rarity and not infrequently a premium on the price. The fact is that not only aren't ghost dated QSAs scarce they're actually quite common. I once read, but can't recall the source, that fully a third of all QSAs issued had ghost dates. A friend of mine who is well known in the medal collecting world asked another well known dealer if he could look at a QSA on his table at a fair. The dealer went straight into warp speed about the "clear ghost dates" on the medal but was left speechless when my friend replied, "That's OK. You can get rid of them with a bit of silver dip." Personally I couldn't care less whether a QSA has ghost dates or not and I certainly wouldn't pay a premium for one on that basis.

Maybe others have a different view.

David

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • Page:
  • 1
Moderators: djb
Time to create page: 0.457 seconds
Powered by Kunena Forum