Engraved WW1 Victory Medals, got one?

[LuftStalg1]

This one (A.E. O'Brien 1914-1918 USS Niagara) recently sold on big E. I am guessing it was the SP-136 patrolling vessel as the other two were something like tug boats / yachts.

 

 

 

It reminded me of one I had in a set (Arthur R.J. L. Piper edged engraved USS Indiana WW1 Victory and reverse engraved Naval Reserve Medal) and wondered what other kind of interesting Victory Medal engravings you all may have seen?

 

 

[BigJohn#3RD]

Very nice, I keep looking but have yet to find one. Thanks for posting.

John

[Adam R]

This one is engraved “Louise Cadell Lloyd, Yeoman 3d Class USS Triton”. Lloyd was a “yeomanette”. She joined the Navy the same day war was declared, April 6, 1917 but only served until October of 1917 when she was put on inactive duty in order to go into the civil service. She was finally discharged in April 1920. The USS Triton was a tug at the Washington Navy Yard to which the yeomanettes were administratively attached. They did not actually serve aboard this ship.

[jmar]

Hello LS,

 

I hope you and the rest of the gang here are doing well. I had posted this example a while back, but it's one of my favorites as far as unusual engraving. I believe in this instance the tip of the sword is used in lieu of the letter "i" for this veteran's name. I haven't confirmed that, but think it's quite likely. I'm very fortunate to have several edge named, but I find examples like this and the one you posted very attractive and different. I hope to see more variations added!

 

Thank you for an interesting post. Beautiful Naval Reserve Medal too! I'd love to have one of those!!

 

Best wishes to you all!

 

Joe

 

[BigJohn#3RD]

Hello again,

LS I want to echo Joe's sentiments; this is a great thread. I have a couple of questions though:

Did an individual have to request to have their medals engraved?

Where the engraved VM strictly a Navy issue or where any of the other service Marines and Army doing it if requested?

Joe, Adam and LS some great medals and also very good photography. What type of camera do you use?

Thanks,

John

[Jack's Son]

Just the one...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[USMCR79]

Here is one to a Marine

 

Bill

[LuftStalg1]

Here is the one I had, but it is just an edge engraving.

[LuftStalg1]

WW1 vict Frt.jpg Here is the one I had, but it is just an edge engraving.

 

 

And the engraving.

[LuftStalg1]

Hello again,

LS I want to echo Joe's sentiments; this is a great thread. I have a couple of questions though:

Did an individual have to request to have their medals engraved?

Where the engraved VM strictly a Navy issue or where any of the other service Marines and Army doing it if requested?

Joe, Adam and LS some great medals and also very good photography. What type of camera do you use?

Thanks,

John

 

John,

 

I believe that they were privately done. It is not typically a medal that would be engraved. So that being said any one from any branch may have done it. Maybe we can get some from each branch shown here!

 

Some very nice ones so far, thanks guys!

 

Mark

[11thArk]

I have a WW1 victory rim engraved J. N. Baltrimas/ U.S.S. Montana with escort bar. He later served on the Nevada & the Lexington.

[Tom Nier]

This WW1 VM is my personal favorite for private engraving. The planchet obverse reads along its edge: "Hollis H. Bush -- Batt. E -- 147 F.A. -- 32nd Div". What is amusing is that Bush had his initials "H.H.B." engraved on the back of each campaign clasp and even on the medal brooch. The 32nd Division rated the A-M, O-A, M-A, & DS clasps. But somehow, Bush was also issued the Aisne clasp. The 147th FA reached France in December 1917 as part of the 41st Inf. Div. So he was available to serve in the Aisne campaign.

[LuftStalg1]

Found this one on the net. Engraving on the back straps of the bars, like Tom's Army guy. Came off the forum somewhere.

[Adam R]

Almost forgot that I had this one. It reads "A. Valent CGM USS New Jersey". It's part of a larger group that includes his USS San Francisco Sampson Medal and a Treasury Silver Lifesaving Medal.

[JBFloyd]

Navy regulations specifically permitted the private engraving of campaign medals, so many sailors took their medals to jewelers and had them named. You'll see a few fairly standard styles, if not hands, which leads toward believing that there were one or two engravers in the major ports who would do the job.

 

Army regulations were silent on the subject, and there is less uniformity in the naming styles. About half of those I've had over the years were done on the backstraps of the clasps. Of those named on the pendant, a vast majority were named in the obverse or reverse field and rarely on the edge.

[jmar]

Hello again everyone,

 

This thread is turning out just as I (and no doubt, many other) hoped...full of beautiful things! And some great information too, threads like these are imho what makes this place great. So many incredible and historical pieces shared here, all stunning.

 

I especially like the reverse bar engraved examples. I was never able to nail one of those..came close a few times but never managed to snag it in the end...but there's always another day.

 

I wanted to put a up a few more from my collection to show the range of thing that these vets, now long gone, had engraved on the rim of their WW I Vics in order to make them "their own". Some of these are parts of groups, others just single medals.

 

I imagine they paid by the letter, it seems as though Fireman 1st Class Sledge had quite the budget! I hope you enjoy seeing these!

 

A NOTE TO JOHN:

The real expert here is by far Adam for his medal photography, he's got it down to an art form. I'm quite flattered to be even mentioned in the same sentence as him! But to answer your question I do not use a camera. I co-own a graphic arts company in Delaware and have always had access to high end scanners. With technology moving so fast the days of the $8000 scanner are now long gone, at least for most of the world. I do have a quality scanner for transparencies, but find myself rarely using it. For my personal use I have a $90 Epson Perfection V300 Photo scanner, it's incredible for the price. I scan at crazy resolution for detail shots (4800 dpi or higher), then size, crop and do any color correction using Adobe Photoshop CS6. Photoshop has a great feature built in for saving for web use, it'll adjust size and resolution to meet your required file size...under 150K for the Forum for instance. I hope this helps!

 

My best to you all, thank you again LS for such a fun and educational thread,

 

Joe

 

[jmar]

[jmar]

Here's one I wish I knew more about, no drape on it either, just the planchet

 

[jmar]

[jmar]

the last for now!

 

[LuftStalg1]

Just found one I had already forgotten I had. I guess one good thing about my brain damage is that I can clean my room and its a lot like Christmas morning under the tree!

 

Looks like Alvin Barensfeld served as a Chief Gunners Mate on the Battleship USS New York according to his Mexico Service medal and the Destroyer USS Bell during WW1 according to his Good Conduct and WW1 Victory medal.

[trenchbuff]

Beautiful victories! Thanks, everyone, for taking the time to post these pieces.

[LuftStalg1]

This one just sold on the big "E" for $102. Not great photos. He stated in the add "Robt P. Utterbach or Uttenbach"

 

 

[LuftStalg1]

Another on that just sold on big "E" for just over $53. Another poor photo but sold cheep I think.

 

[Adam R]

While reviewing personnel files that I've scanned in St. Louis I came across this US Navy transmittal letter for the Victory Medal. Normally the bottom receipt was detached and returned to the Navy (and was usually ended up in the personnel file). The top half was supposed to be retained by the recipient but in this case he sent back the entire letter which was put in his file. Note that paragraph 3 authorizes the engraving of the medal.