Different types of Army WWII medal cases

[Little]

Does anyone know an approximate time that each of the different types would have first been issued in?

I'm  interested in Army WWII medal cases only.  Which type came out first, which type came out second, which third, and so on.

[Allan H.]

Little,

 

There really aren't that many different cases issued by the army and AAF during WWII. Most would be the dark blue type with a hinged lid. Most are titled with the name of the medal. There are some untitled cases, like the pearl button case, but those are pretty scarce and probably aren't what you are looking for.  The WWII cases continued to be used on awarded medals through the Vietnam war. the only cases that came out after WWII for army use were the clear plastic case which came out in the 1950's and the Arrow case which came out in the 1960's. 

 

Now, if you want to get into the intricacies of the cases, the ones made out of wood are considered to be earlier with the steel cases coming out a little later, but they were being made concurrently, The earliest of the wooden cases were covered with leather. Next, they were covered with a man-made material that we call leatherette, You will see the same leatherette used to cover the steel cases.

 

Is this what you wanted to know? If you need more info, holler.

 

Allan

 

[Little]

To be more specific, I have four different style WWII distinguished service cross cases. One has "distinguished service cross" in very small letters on the front of the case. Another has the usual size lettering but the outer and inner gold lines are further apart than they are on other cases. The others are the same except the lettering for "distinguished service cross" on one case is different from another case; as an example one has the letter "N" and the other case has the letter "n" in the word "distinguished".  I was just wondering if the different style cases were issued at different times and in what order; or were they all issued about the same time but by different manufacturers.

[jmpmstr]

I'm no expert, but in my observations, the difference is manufacturer differentiaton vice a period seperation, although there may be certain fonts and styles awarded more often through a certain date period simply because that is how the inventory was consumed.