Help With 10K Gold NGSNY 1894 Attendance Medal New York National Guard

[mds308]

An 1894 New York National Guard 10K gold medal. Unfortunately, the medal is not named. Is the 25 for the 25th Company NGSNY? What does the number 1 represent? One year perfect attendance? Nice medal. I wish it was for bravery rather than attendance. There are no makers marks or gold marks. It tests good for 10K. Comments and help are appreciated. Thank you.

 

 

[patches]

Possibly, note the SEP on the one side and CO on the other. 25th Separate Infantry Company??? or the 1 is the company number 1st Separate Infantry Company and the 25 there is related to some kind of a silver jubilee???

 

Will check around.

[patches]

Got a hit for 25th Separate Company Infantry New York National Guard.

 

 

Included are muster rolls for companies in the 7th, 8th, 69th and 71st Infantry .... 1879 September 5 1 13726-83 Divisions - 25th Separate Company Infantry

 

7th Brigade - 25th Separate Company Infantry, Canandaigua

 

 

http://iarchives.nysed.gov/xtf/view?docId=ead/findingaids/13726.xml;chunk.id=fullfalink;brand=default

[mds308]

Thanks patches.

 

I found a great Website for the State New York Military Museum. This page mentions that the oldest NGSNY award began in 1894 (the date of my medal) and this medal was for people who attended at least 85% (changed to 90%) of scheduled training exercises. If I am interpreting this page correctly, the number 1 was for the Class. There was a Class IV, III, II, I and SPECIAL. The number 1 class was for 25 years in service. I could not find any individuals from the 25th Separate Company who received this award in 1894. Since the medal wasn't engraved and the top bar of the Maltese cross is blank, it may be possible that my medal was never issued. I did notice many of the high ranking officers who received this medal did not have a specific unit/company affiliation listed. To date I have been unable to find another example of this medal for comparison.

 

If interested, click Website link

 

http://dmna.ny.gov/historic/research/decorations/LongAndFaithful/

[patches]

So by this new information, the 25 there stands for 25 Years, that kinda makes sense cause the rest of the engravings on the cross pattée seem or are recessed Black.

 

Where's the Company Number then, the 25 in the Gold Wreath isn't it. Could this then be an unissued one, one that was made in bulk as it were and when issued out, the recipients Company Number was engraved on the top arm of the cross pattée with perhaps the recipients name engraved on the back, too bad you can't find another example of this medal to check.

 

[mds308]

The Website I mentioned calls this medal the oldest award. I'm not sure what they mean by this due to the fact there are much earlier NGSNY medals known. Unless this was the oldest Attendance Medal.

 

patches, thanks for the confirmation on everything I typed.

[Fred Borgmann]

I wonder if the book on New York medals by Paul Till would have the answers?

[mars&thunder]

The medal you are referencing on the NYS Military Museum website is the state long and faithful service decoration, not the one pictured in this thread. The medal in this thread was made in upstate NY, an opinion only based on the design elements - a maker in upstate NY used exactly this top bar (different wording) for a gold marksmanship medal so I am assuming it is by the same maker. My interpretation is that this medal is for 1 year perfect attendance to somebody in the 25th Separate Company, a unit based in Tonanwanda NY. The earlier 25th Sep Co located in Canadaigua was in existence for only 10 years and was shut down in 1888 so the 1894 bar means it is the successor unit (Tonawanda) which came into being in 1891. Like the gold marksmanship badge I mentioned, this medal is similarly unusual in that units often did not give out gold versions of anything except for special accomplishments (or if the recipient purchased a special gold version). One year is not a special accomplishment, but then the marksmanship badge in gold was for a similar non-special accomplishment. I favor identifying the unit as the 25th versus the 1st because the 1st Separate Company (Rochester) only came into existence in 1890, so no way somebody in 1894 had 25 years service. The way to add more certainty to this conclusion would be to locate a bronze version of the 25th Sep Co's attendance (100% duty) medal from this same timeframe and see if the designs match.

[Fred Borgmann]

It is not listed in Till's book which only covers New York State National Guard awards. Therefore must assume that this is a local or unit award.