Military Medals - British Military Medals

Have you ever wondered if what you know about Military Medals is accurate? Maybe if check out the following paragraphs and compare what you know to the information here about collecting military medals.

You may not consider everything you read here to be very crucial information about certain military medals. But If you're seriously interested in knowing about, or collecting for example British military medals, you need to think beyond the basics. This informative article takes a closer look at things you need to know about collecting medals including the British military medals.

All Military Medals are a nations official mark of recognition of service to the country by the wearer, and are awarded for participation in a certain battle, campaign or war or for outstanding acts of bravery or sacrifice by an individual.

A military medal is also a sign to others that the wearer or recipient deserves a certain distinction. So British military medals can be in a way, a small piece of history as each medal represents an achievement by a certain individual.

It is very important however to be able to recognise the difference between a service or campaign medal and the Gallantry Medals. A service medal is awarded to any service personnel who has taken part in a particular battle campaign or war, they just have to have been there.

Where as gallantry medals or awards for bravery are very different as these have been won by the individual for an outstanding act and so are much more highly prized and usually a lot rarer All of these factors contribute as to what makes a military medal desirable and more collectible than another.

Now that we've covered those aspects of military medals, let's turn to some of the other factors that need to be considered.

All British Military Medals have now become highly collectible, with the most popular British war medals collected being from WW1. The vast majority would be the service ones (known as pip squeak and wilfred) and the WW2 medals.(campaign).

The one big difference between British military medals and other nations medals are that British campaign medals are usually named, (WW2 service medals being the exception) with the recipients name rank and unit.

So this presents the opportunity of research, and to be able to build up a story of how, why and where that individual came to receive the award.

Any British campaign or service medals whether as individual ones or sets usually command the lowest prices and are a good way to start a collection.

THE VICTORIA CROSS:

The Victoria Cross has to be the most prestigious of all British military awards, and is greatly sought after. Frankly it is a very plain looking medal, being just a bronze cross, with a crown mounted by a lion. The inscription reads "FOR VALOUR" and the medal is suspended from a bronze bar by the letter V, the bar is suspended by a crimson ribbon.

The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest British Gallantry Award for acts of Valour. It is very rarely awarded (more often posthumously), always greatly coveted, and carries an aura of reverence and mystisium with it. The VC has only been awarded 1356 times since 1856, and only 13 times since WW2.

The Victoria Cross takes precidence over all other awards orders and decorations even knighthoods and is usually presented by the reigning monarch at a special investiture held at Buckingham Palace.

Victoria Cross

George Cross

Conspicuous Gallantry Cross

D.S.O Distinguished Service Order

D.S.C Distinguished Service Cross

Military Cross

Distinguished Flying Cross

Distinguished Conduct Medal

Conspicuous GallantryMedal

George Medal

Distinguished Sevice Medal

Military Medal