Flea Market WWII Purple Heart

[Dave]

Can the fake engraving styles be posted for reference?

 

Here's a good reference page, from Tom Lane's website: http://purplehearts.net/id8.html

 

I have more photos, but unfortunately cannot post them as they are in people's collections currently.

[Dave]

Guys - I hate to disagree but this Purple Heart would have an honored place in my collection

 

Bill

 

If the owner's comfortable with it then that's what counts, in all honesty (really...and not being sarcastic here, I know that could sound like it, but it's hard to convey inflection through the internets!)

 

Photographing as many medals as I did, I'd say I ran into about 2% that were outright fakes. Then, there were about 5% whose style was questionable, but I have yet to confirm that style as a bona-fide official engraving style (and some have been confirmed to have been the work of one specific faker, whose modus operandi and style I learned later in the process...) Still, there are some that, for whatever reason, I can't confirm and aren't comfortable with. When I made my appendix of engraving styles in the book, I only used examples I was 100% comfortable with saying they were real. There were a couple that I wasn't comfortable with so I left them out - erring on the side of caution rather than having something that could be confirmed later as a fake in a published book. (And I won't even start with the post-Vietnam War posthumous Purple Heart engraving minefield! Needless to say, those that have made it into Volume 2 have been screened VERY carefully to make sure they are 100% right.)

 

Dave

[jeffs1130]

What did he pay for the medal?

 

I mean if it was $25 who cares if it's real or fake!

 

But I have to side with Dave, the man has 1400+ photo examples and a drawer with fakes! He knows his stuff!

[vernon]

Based on my experiences with WW2 engraved purple hearts I too would have concerns on including this heart in my collection.

[illegitimi non carborundum]

Is this the same PH discussed here?

 

https://www.flyingtigerantiques.com/wwii-kia-cased-bataan-death-march-purple-heart-of-pfc-jacque-boulton.html

[decwriter]

For comparison since it has been a few years. First pic is cropped from the original post. The second pic is from the website above.

 

[illegitimi non carborundum]

My initial reaction would be to stay away and assume the worst.  But ... while the earlier picture isn't the best it does seem that the top one is cruder than the bottom one.  And I should have mentioned, I have no connection to the current seller or the original poster.  

[History Man]

At first glance it does appear to be the same Purple Heart, though as you mentioned the angle is much more flattering the second time around. 

[John2022]

I did some research on this, and found one of Jacques's descendents on Ancestry. She was kind enough to send me this picture and I thought I would share. I try to collect material on Bataan, and the Pacific.  

[MottTheHoople]

 

On 4/23/2024 at 8:14 AM, decwriter said:

For comparison since it has been a few years. First pic is cropped from the original post. The second pic is from the website above.

 

Considering the lug is different on these 2 purple hearts, and the top one is clearly a poor copy of the engraving of the bottom one, I think we can go ahead and say definitively that it is fake.  With all the trouble the faker went to copying the font angle & size, they failed to realize the 2 medals obviously came from different manufacturers.