Question on Kuwait Liberation Medal

[hawkdriver]

Someone correct me if I am wrong, the original Kuwait Liberation medals, the little gold country in the middle of the medal is 24 karat gold. Correct?

If so, has anyone figured out how much gold is in the medal and what the gold is worth in scrap price? I ask because I found one of these medals today in the original green Saudi issue box. When I got it home and checked the going rate on these, they barely sell for $15. It looks that there is more than $15 in scrap gold. Am I wrong here.

[mvmhm]

That rumor has been going around since the award was announced....the Saudia, Kuwaitis, etc might award medals with precious metals to the higher up like Stormin Norman or Colin Powell, but the rank and file commoners would never be so rewarded....I've seen some of these listed for thousands of dollars, and they were especially hard to get right after the war for this very reason...everyone thought they had a "gold mine"....but they are cool looking medals.

 

 

Mark sends

[hawkdriver]

So, then what is the medal metal? Brass?

[hawkdriver]

Well, after doing some considerable digging, I found where someone had theirs tested and the Saudi medal metal is actually gold plating and not much of it, so almost no metal value at all.

[Third Herd]

In the 1970's I worked in an electronics plant the used gold plated connectors that came on big rolls. The rolls remained after a machine took the connector off and they were tossed in the dumpster. I thought the dumpster might be a gold mine, but after some research I found the platting was only a couple atoms thick. A whole dumpster might be worth a penny if I could get the gold off the base metal. Medals would have a slightly thicker plating , but not worth messing with.