How to date an US medal ?

[Felix]

How is it possible ? By the brooch ? Makers marks ? Anything else ?

Some examples :

Full wrap brooch (20's to 40's ?)


Slot brooch (40's ?)


Not sewn slot brooch (late 40's)


Crimp brooch (40's to today ?)


Modern crimp brooch ?

[Felix]

Makers marks

Directly on the rim or the medal (50's to 70's ?), here for Volupte inc.


On the brooch (70's to today ?)

Full name


Code (G27 for Graco, Texas)


Full name with "GI"

[Felix]

Nobody know ?

[medalguy]

Let me chime in here as founder and original owner of Graco Awards. The brooch can be used to somewhat accurately determine the period of manufacture of any medal. There is no way to really accurately date a medal's date of manufacture by the brooch. Here are several reasons why:

1. When they are ordered on a military contract for Defense Supply Center, the specification calls for a particular brooch to be used. If a manufacturer has another type on hand, they can apply for a variance in the contract to allow the older parts to be used up.

2. Many medals are ordered from local supply activities by individual units and organizations today, rather then being ordered from the depot. In this case, the local suppliers may sell old stock, new stock, or a combination of items. For example, a military unit can use their credit card to order medals from Bubba's Army Surplus outside the main gate, and Bubba can then order medals, ribbons, and lapel pins from any supplier who has them in stock, package them in boxes Bubba has laying around the shop, and sell them to the military unit.

3. Units can order medals directly from a legitimate manufacturer such as Graco Awards, who can use any components that they might have in stock. This could allow the use of older styles of brooches or boxes or other components.

4. As far as the award date, consider this. The military depot doesn't always issue items on a first-in, first-out basis. Medals may sit on their shelf for many years before being issued out to units. I can recall my time in the Air Force when our unit, in the 1970's period, was sent decorations in the black WWII boxes, for current issue. So at least for award date, there's no way to accurately determine a date.

[Felix]

Thanks,

I think that is the case for the first issue of the Air force good conduct medal in 1963 who were made with a slot brooch.
Is it possible that the manufacturer used an old stock of Army GCM (as the pendant is the same) to made them, or the Air Force decided for saving money to upgrade his old stock of Army GCM just by reribboned them ?

[medalguy]

There is no way the AF would have the means or ability to reribbon medals. Any unusable medals go straight into the rubbish can. The AF GCM was a new contract, duly noted on the box end, May 1963 inspection/acceptance date.

Here's some information on box dates. When a contract is issued, it may be for a number of monthly delivery dates, ranging from a single delivery in the case of a small contract, to deliveries spaced monthly over several years. The contract date is the date the contract is signed. The boxes should be marked with the actual date of inspection of the medals (or other items), which is not necessarily the date of manufacture nor the date of delivery. Then after inspection, if the medals pass inspection, there is an acceptance date by a government inspector. A contract might be signed in June of 1963, with deliveries scheduled to start in May 1963 and be scheduled over 48 months, so each lot of medals inspected may have a different date. One lot of medals might not all be shipped at one time, but be spaced out over several months, but yet they may all have the same inspection and acceptance date.

Don't confuse the inspection and acceptance date with a contact date nor a manufacture date. It does get confusing.

[Felix]

Thanks,

If I unterstood, the 6/91 date on the box is for the acceptance of the lot ?


Is the "A" before the date for acceptance ? (on some boxes, you can find "A/B")

On this WWII victory medal, it is the date of the contract ?


On this Vietnam medal box, there is no date at all

[medalguy]

To answer your questions in order:

(A) SW Asia Service: 6/91 is the date of acceptance of the initial lot of medals. The same date was used on subsequent lots in order to achieve the lowest price in printing the cartons, all the same date. The A is the packing level of the medals, which has to do with contact packaging. Too complex to deal with here but it's not an acceptance date. Packing levels can be A, B, or C.

(B) WW II Victory Medal: The date is the date of the Quartermaster requisition used in ordering the medals.

(C) Vietnam Service Medal: That's maybe a goof, should have been a date, unless the contracting office was in a rush and ordered them on a commercial order which did not require an acceptance mark. This would be equal to ordering medals not on a competitive bid but just picking up the phone and ordering from a company. Send us X number of medals and we'll pay Y dollars each.

[jbigley]

Very informative thread here. Thanks.

[Felix]

Thanks a lot !

Vietnam Service Medal: That's maybe a goof, should have been a date, unless the contracting office was in a rush and ordered them on a commercial order which did not require an acceptance mark. This would be equal to ordering medals not on a competitive bid but just picking up the phone and ordering from a company. Send us X number of medals and we'll pay Y dollars each.

I have several boxed medals that are not dated.