Jump to content

Congressional medals, Victory medals, and American Theater Campaign medals


Noelle
 Share

Recommended Posts

While perusing eBay, as one does when looking for stuff, I saw a small repro of a congressional medal, and that made me wonder—how often do these medals ever go up for sale or auction, and how much would they be expected to go for?  Have any ever even gone up for sale or auction?  Are the Victory and American Theater Campaign medals specific in design to the WASPs the way the Congressional as designed for them, or were those the same issued to everyone else?  I know very little about these.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

collectsmedals

From the FBI website:

 

Due to the prestige of the Medal of Honor, it is a federal crime to manufacture, sell, or trade these awards without authorization of the federal government. It is also illegal to use unauthorized Medals of Honors to receive benefits, such as money or property.

 

Of course these laws are only applicable in the United States, so you do occasionally see or hear of a Medal of Honor being sold overseas.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The referenced "congressional medal," I think, is a Congressional Gold Medal as awarded by Congress to specific groups, not the military Medal of Honor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, collectsmedals said:

From the FBI website:

 

Due to the prestige of the Medal of Honor, it is a federal crime to manufacture, sell, or trade these awards without authorization of the federal government. It is also illegal to use unauthorized Medals of Honors to receive benefits, such as money or property.

 

Of course these laws are only applicable in the United States, so you do occasionally see or hear of a Medal of Honor being sold overseas.

 

@atb is correct.  I’m not referring to the medal of honor, which they didn’t get, but rather to the Congressional Gold, which they did, though the ones they actually received were bronze.

 

https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/congressional-gold-medal-women-airforce-service-pilots/nasm_A20100219000

Link to comment
Share on other sites

collectsmedals
3 hours ago, atb said:

The referenced "congressional medal," I think, is a Congressional Gold Medal as awarded by Congress to specific groups, not the military Medal of Honor.

That makes more sense, sorry for the confusion and thank you for the correction, my mistake.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, collectsmedals said:

That makes more sense, sorry for the confusion and thank you for the correction, my mistake.

 

I take some of the fault here.  I left out the “gold” because the ones the recipients actually get are bronze as the gold is seen a too valuable.  Rep Joe Baca back in 2006 had the right idea that, if people are deemed worth of this honor, they’re worthy of the few grand in gold, but was struck down.  ONE gold is struck, then kept in a museum, while recipients receive bronze versions.  Didn’t seem right to reference the WASP ones as “gold metals” when they got bronze, but I also didn’t think about how “Congressional Metal” could also be read as short for the MOH.  So my apologies for causing that confusion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To part two of your question - The American Campaign and Victory Medals were virtually the same.  Navy and Marine Corps personnel largely had theirs made at the US Mint, but the design is the same.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

collectsmedals
13 hours ago, GIKyle said:

To part two of your question - The American Campaign and Victory Medals were virtually the same.  Navy and Marine Corps personnel largely had theirs made at the US Mint, but the design is the same.  

GIKyle is correct. Here is a photograph of Navy, Army, and Coast Guard American Campaign Medals side by side with their issue boxes. As you can see the only real difference are the box labels.

IMG_1589.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@GIKyle and @collectsmedals Thanks. So those wouldn't be specific to WASPs. Do you know about the Congressionals?  I haven’t found any of those go up for sale before. The golds, which are bronze, not the honor ones. 😁

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, cutiger83 said:

 

Yes, but not replicas available for the public to buy as souvenirs.  I’m talking about ones actually given to the recipients.  Originals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, cutiger83 said:

 

That was referring to their Victory and American Theater medals, which they got in 1984. We’re talking about a few medals in this thread. Their Congressionals were signed in 2009 and given in 2010. 

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...