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Which States & Towns Issued WW1 Service Medals?


Bugme
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I've only got one of these. It was given to my Father-in-law upon his return from the PTO. Sorry about the picture but it's in a sealed display case and I really don't want to mess with opening it up. But, the front shows the logo of the state of Wisconsin and the back side is made, not engraved, with the words: From The Grateful Citizens Of Manitowoc, Wisconsin

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Fred Borgmann
I've only got one of these. It was given to my Father-in-law upon his return from the PTO. Sorry about the picture but it's in a sealed display case and I really don't want to mess with opening it up. But, the front shows the logo of the state of Wisconsin and the back side is made, not engraved, with the words: From The Grateful Citizens Of Manitowoc, Wisconsin

 

This piece was issued by Manitowoc County which had 6,492 of it's citizens in the military during WWII. It was not holed and not named when issued. It is also one of the few government issued medals that was not intended to be worn on a ribbon.

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This piece was issued by Manitowoc County which had 6,492 of it's citizens in the military during WWII. It was not holed and not named when issued. It is also one of the few government issued medals that was not intended to be worn on a ribbon.

Wow, I didn't know all that Fred, where did you locate this information! Also, I should have mentioned that it wasn't a medal but, I think it's pretty easy to tell that by the picture.

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Fred Borgmann
Wow, I didn't know all that Fred, where did you locate this information! Also, I should have mentioned that it wasn't a medal but, I think it's pretty easy to tell that by the picture.

 

The Manitowoc County piece is a medal, it is a nonportable medal meaning that it was not intended to be worn. It looks like yours is holed which if it is holed was done by the vet to put it on a chain. The number of people in service comes from the Wisconsin Blue Book 1962 edition which contains the best military history of Wisconsin ever published and the rest comes from my 40+ years of collecting local issue war service medals.

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The Manitowoc County piece is a medal, it is a nonportable medal meaning that it was not intended to be worn. It looks like yours is holed which if it is holed was done by the vet to put it on a chain. The number of people in service comes from the Wisconsin Blue Book 1962 edition which contains the best military history of Wisconsin ever published and the rest comes from my 40+ years of collecting local issue war service medals.

Thanks Fred. Yes, he did drill it and wore it around his neck for years. The veteran was my Father-in-law Pfc. Ervin Zimmerman USAAF. He grew up near Suring, WI and then moved to Manitowoc in the early 40's.

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This is a collecting niche of mine. In my earlier years, I used to collect anything and everything militaria. I soon became frustrated with that and learned to narrow my focus more in line with my ability to buy what I really want. Same with these town medals. 3 or 4 years ago, I decided to narrow my town medal collecting to Ohio and now have about 16 of them. I sort of doubt I'll find them all before I stop collecting but at least I have a more realistic goal !

Here is the only named town medal I have. This is from Hudson, Ohio. I have a copy of a vintage period newspaper article somewhere around here showing that only about 110 vets were given these. This one was made by Whitehead & Hoag. Kim

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This is one of my favorite areas to collect also, although I focus on the medals of Indiana.

 

Here is a little bit of a variation, a county medal wih a gold star added for a soldier who dies while in the service. Carl Frantz died on influenza before going overseas.

 

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Obverse:

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Jeffrey Magut

Here are two less commonly seen Connecticut town medals: Shelton and Middlebury. Note that these have no place for engraving the name of the recipient.

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Here are the backs

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  • 1 month later...
think.gif "Greetings & Salutations!" Here is the obverse and reverse views of a post-WW1 medal that I do not know which town or state issued it or whatever it was called? Your guesses might help indentify it? Thanks! think.gif Sarge Booker of Tujunga, California ( [email protected] )

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:rolleyes: Although this medal was issued by the State of Wyoming probably after the First World War, its not a town medal, but what was its name? (Shown here both sides). :rolleyes: Sarge Booker of Tujunga.

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...Here is the obverse and reverse views of a post-WW1 medal that I do not know which town or state issued it or whatever it was called?

 

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  • 1 month later...

New York State

 

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Amsterdam, New York.

 

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Utica, New York.

 

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Ogden, New York. Named to Clarence M. Freestone.

 

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Rochester, New York. First medal is unnamed.

 

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Rochester, New York. Named to H. Ainsworthy.

 

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Schenectady, New York.

 

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CNY Militaria

Very neat! My favorite is the Rochester one because of the quality it possesses. I have many WWI NY medals as well, which I will post when I go home soon. One of the older members of our comunity had a stack of about 20, boxed, mint vintage WWI City of Oswego medals! He gave one to me, and I'll post that here as well.

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FightenIrish35

These are some amazing medals.I have been trying to find NY medals but always forgot what they look like exactly when im at military shows passing tables. Im actually going to print out these examples to put in my pocket next show lol..Thanks guys!

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I had actually started a web site showing WW1 state town medals. Just foir fun as I could never afford to own them all. But I didn't think anyone would care.

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I had actually started a web site showing WW1 state town medals. Just foir fun as I could never afford to own them all. But I didn't think anyone would care.

 

Do you still have that web page up and running? I'd love to see what you had 'collected.' I do the same thing too, I've copied a bunch of pictures from different web pages to sort of catalog the different variety's and locations.

 

FightenIrish35: I'll be posting more pictures from different states in the next couple of days.

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