Jump to content

Army Good Conduct WW2 Manufacturers


mars&thunder
 Share

Recommended Posts

mars&thunder

This topic has been poked at a few times in previous posts, but never got off the ground. I'll admit that this decoration is not my favorite, and my interest is marginal. However I am an inveterate research guy, and I often stray far afield from my primary interests. This is one of those times. On and off, every couple years, for a couple hours, I work on a list of manufacturers of US WW2 medals as stated on the issue boxes they came in. Below is my Good Conduct list. I make no claim that it is complete, but it is reasonably comprehensive. I would urge collectors to help fill in the holes.

 

A couple notes - I use the Purchase Order date to identify each contract/manufacturer. Some boxes also list the PQD (Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot) Specification date by which the details and quality standards of the medal were defined - be careful not to use this date in identifying the medal - use the PO date. Also dates are in Month-Day-Yr format. The first contract (Medallic Arts 12-4-42) produced two types of numbered medals (the only numbered Army Good Conduct Medals): The earliest and much rarer version had a wire loop (ring) suspension. The second had a knob suspension. I don't know the actual cut-off point but have heard 500 and 1000 mentioned without any data to back that up. In the entry below for these two numbered types I list the lowest and highest numbered example of each type that I have noted. For those of you interested in the history of the Army Good Conduct Medal, get yourselves a copy of the Mar-Apr 2000 issue of the Journal of the Orders and Medals Society of America to see Fred Borch's excellent article. And a plug for OMSA - great folks, great resources, why not join? You can see details online.

 

Ideally, somebody would take this list and add photos/descriptions of each PO medal (in case there are manufacturers variants) and create the ultimate guide. I am not that guy.

 

WW2 Good Conduct Contract List

 

12-4-42 Medallic Art Co T1 (Medal Number 56 and 208) – Wire loop/Ring Suspension

12-4-42 Medallic Art Co T2 (Medal numbers 2226 and 75714) – Knob Suspension

4-24-43 Silverman Brothers

5-11-44 Medallic Art Co

5-11-44 Robbins Co

5-11-44 Silverman Brothers

5-11-44 Uncas Mfg Co

6-11-44 Bastian Brothers

11-11-44 Robbins Co

11-20-44 Medallic Art Co

11-20-44 Robbins Co

11-20-44 Uncas Mfg Co

12-30-44 Robbins Co

12-30-44 Uncas Mfg Co

1-26-45 Robbins Co

1-26-45 Medallic Art Co

2-1-45 Bastian Brothers

5-8 45 Medallic Art Co

7-25-45 Medallic Art Co

11-14-45 Robbins Co

1-18-46 Medallic Art Co

2-5-46 Medallic Art Co

 

2-5-4X Robbins Co - Need complete PO data

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gary --

 

One curious detail remains to be verified in the #'d AGC series. I have record of 4 medals #'d in the 100xxx early range. These are -034, -514, -701, and -717. The digits are smaller and more tightly packed than the MedArt numerals. They must be from the 1943 Silverman Bros.contract. But some alert Forum member may spot and report a boxed AGC wuth matching 100xxx numbers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...
mars&thunder

A couple minor updates/corrections to the original posted list... (see items in bold)

 

WW2 Good Conduct Contract List

 

12-4-42 Medallic Art Co T1 (Medal Number 56 and 208) – Wire loop/Ring Suspension

12-4-42 Medallic Art Co T2 (Medal numbers 2226 and 75714) – Knob Suspension

4-24-43 Silverman Brothers (These may be numbered in the 100,000 range)

5-11-44 Medallic Art Co

5-11-44 Robbins Co

5-11-44 Silverman Brothers

5-11-44 Uncas Mfg Co

6-11-44 Bastian Brothers 5-11-44 Bastian Brothers

5-11-44 Coro Inc

11-11-44 Robbins Co

11-20-44 Medallic Art Co

11-20-44 Robbins Co

11-20-44 Uncas Mfg Co

12-30-44 Robbins Co

12-30-44 Uncas Mfg Co

1-26-45 Robbins Co

1-26-45 Medallic Art Co

2-1-45 Bastian Brothers

5-8 45 Medallic Art Co

7-25-45 Medallic Art Co

11-14-45 Robbins Co

11-14-45 Rex Products (PO information only displayed on the ten medal packing case. Individual medal boxes state: GOOD CONDUCT / DECORATION MEDAL on 2 lines).

1-18-46 Medallic Art Co

2-5-46 Medallic Art Co

 

2-5-4X Robbins Co - Need complete PO data (Probably 1946)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...