If you’ve been looking through the posts on Identify Medals, there’s a high likelihood that you fall in one of the two groups: 1.) you’re a medal collector, or) you’re looking to become one. If you’re the former the article below will give you an outline of the best way to begin collecting medals, so you can make it an enjoyable and rewarding pastime!
1. Plan Your Way
The first step when it comes to beginning with collecting medals is to figure out the best method to take. Instead of randomly collecting medals, you’ll want to think about the kinds of medals you’d prefer to discover. It will allow you to to narrow your attention.
Coin World suggests that you could adopt one of four ways to collect your medals:
Create an Set
Collect an Artist
Concentrate on a Specific Subject
Profile and Event
I’d suggest that for military awards it is most effective to follow one of the four method for collecting medals.
To illustrate the first option it is possible to put together an assortment of army badges and medals from the specific country or war. If you’re planning to begin with a small amount, creating an array of Civil War medals is a excellent place to begin because, if you have a memory from an earlier article, it will only take 2 medals to create an entire set!
However, you might prefer not to begin by the collection of USSR or Third Reich medals because you’ll be able to accumulate! But if you’re looking for the collection to last as a life-long hobby, perhaps you’d like to begin with a bigger collection.
The fourth method is that you can focus on a specific battle from an war or area. Perhaps, for instance, you’d wish to keep all the decorations and medals that were given to Northern France in World War I.
This is probably not the best option for military awards, unless you love the style of an artist, you can focus on collecting all medals awarded to a particular soldier like Erwin Rommel, for example.
Personally, I believe this is the most rewarding method to collect medals. If you combine campaign medals with individual awards it will put the individual story of a soldier’s tale, making it an historic collection of medals that any collector would want to own.
Additionally, you might take a look at joining the local museum, and put an exhibit of a brief description of the person who served and lending your medals to museums for a short period of time. This is an excellent method to discover the meaning behind your collection. Personally, I’d love this idea as it will tell a story , and who doesn’t enjoy stories?
2. Learn about Your Individual/Event/War
Once you’ve figured out how you’re going to approach medal collecting, I’d encourage you to read up on your event/individual/war. It’s probably an interesting idea, considering that it seems to have nothing to do with be concerned with medals. However, by reading up and visiting museums that pertain to your event/individual/war, you’ll have a better idea of what medals to look for.
For instance I’m a massive historian, with a particular fascination with World War II, and If I ever do become interested in collecting medals (I have one at the moment! ) I’d definitely keep track of awards from World War II. However, there are a lot of that I’m always studying more.
As an example, I was at the Airborne Museum in Fayetteville, North Carolina recently and was informed of seven new medals I’d never heard of before. Being informed about your individual or event can not only give you more options of medals to discover, but it will also make the process less grueling as well as more fun.
3. Make use of various sources to locate medals
Thanks to the internet, there are plenty of options to you to locate medals. You can purchase medals on the internet from auction houses like, eBay, or even the links we have on our website on Identify Medals.
Of course the most important thing is to ensure that you are dealing with trustworthy dealers to avoid counterfeit medals. It is possible to browse in the Medal News magazine as well as the annual Medal Yearbook to get an idea of the kinds of medals available and the price you need to pay.
Dan Wade from JustCollecting, an online trading site, advises collectors of medals to inquire about the background of the sale as well as the method by which the seller obtained their medal and to look for the item in person (if feasible! ).
If you’re willing to put in some time looking for something, look into garage auctions, fairs for antiques market stalls, stores and fairs for collectors of medals. If you attend one of these events, it’s somewhat than finding a diamond in the rough. You might not get anything if you’re in search of a particular medal.
But, if you’re open to a wide range of possibilities and don’t have a particular medal in mind such as antique fairs and flea markets could be excellent choices since they’re likely to be considerably more affordable.
A side note Make sure you make sure you pay the correct price. Find out what factors cause the differences in price for medals. The contest that led to the medal being awarded, the form that the award was presented, quality of the medal, as well as the state of the medal all affect the cost of a medal.
If a medal is excellent condition however the ribbon isn’t, you could find a new ribbon. Keep the original ribbon in case would ever decide to sell the medal, or for future reference.
