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Is this medal naming correct? Post your engraving questions here!


Dave
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This one is fine. It was probably done a separation center. While the location of the wounding wasn't usually on these, you have to be mindful of the fact that Private Snuffy was engraving these for other Privates who were looking forward to going home (so was Private Snuffy) so there is some variation on these and I've yet to see anyone fake one of these with stamped lettering. 

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This is another one where the engraving wasn't necessarily bad. However, it's from the 1950s-1970s, not from WW2 or from WW1. 

 

For educational purposes, this engraving was done with a pantograph engraver, using a diamond drag. 

 

 

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I don't want to dwell fully on eBay, though there are some great examples of engraving styles (good and bad) available on there. 

 

Here's one from a major online dealer. It simply is a "nope"...literally, the engraving is not anywhere close to what it should be. The medals are new, the engraving was done with a laser...I don't know what else to say other than someone paid $1300 for some awards that were brand new...

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I'm not sure what someone was thinking here, other than wanting to drop $1100 on a group of medals that was engraved in 1991. I mean...maybe its something they REALLY wanted, but still...it's a completely reissued set. The benefit of this group is seeing what 1991 engraving looks like...

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I'll give this one the benfit of the doubt. Sure, they weren't claiming it was officially government engraved, but this engraving style is extremely common and appeared on numerous fakes from the last four or five decades. Plus, with what appears to be an artificial patina...I'm guessing someone made this to deceive. 

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Here's a nice, official government replacement group from 1986. This is a good way to learn and see what this later type of engraving looked like, and when it dates from. 

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There's nothing particularly wrong with this group or the claims made by the seller. It's really nice privately done engraving. Not official, but still very attractive. 

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When someone is familiar with engraving styles, what's right often becomes a one-look. For example, this seller didn't have the best photos, but this is official small machine engraving. At a glance, you can tell it's right. 

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More private engraving. This group was killer. If I had the chance to buy it, I would have. It's just gorgeous and 100% real. Superb!

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This seller claimed the award was not a more recently engraved one. But...sadly...it was and it's unofficial to boot as the letters are too large for this font style and they were done on a pantograph with a drag. 

 

 

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Another...not being claimed to be anything more than what it was, but interesting because it's another separation center stamped Purple Heart "in the wild". 

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I've seen this happen several times now, and am not sure why. The original, vintage, shipping box gets mated up with a newly engraved award. This one is from 1991 (thanks to the award certificate!) so it's a good example of later replacement engraving...too bad the original medal isn't in the original shipping box though. 

 

 

 

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This group to Luz A. Cisneros came from a known faker in the Phoenix/Mesa Arizona area. We'll see more of their examples. To their credit, after the group was purchased, they refunded the buyer's payment when it was proven to be fake. 

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I'm not sure what was happening to this group to Sam Sacco, but it appears the engraving was ground off and then engraved again. Kind of an odd group, but definitely no where near official engraving. 

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Another one. Nothing particularly wrong with this medal, just more modern engraving for a replacement from the government. 

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This one was interesting because it was a 1947 engraved WIA award to Max Allen. Typically, my assumption was that most of these were script engraved. However, this one is not script but nicely done in block letters. 

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At the start of this thread, I mentioned the "Ohio Auction". Well, this is actually the first Ohio Auction. This auction house actually removed these listings when they were informed these were fake. They then resurfaced the next year in the next auction at a different auction house. There are a lot of photos, and you can see the trend of how they were engraved. I'll post a few at a time as to not be overwhelming. 

 

 

 

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This group to James L Shumate was sold and later split up. The Purple Heart has resurfaced recently online. The DFC and AM (they appear to be the only real parts of this group) are MIA...

 

 

 

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