A few months ago I was visiting the USS Yorktown and while walking below decks saw a medal display that is an example of someone who went to a lot of work to do a poor job of displaying a naval hero’s medals. The display in question
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The New York Central Railroad was founded in 1853 and continued to operate until 1968. In order to recognize the valor of employees who performed courageous deeds, usually resulting in the prevention of loss of life, the New York Central Railroad commissioned a Valor Medal. The medal
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Phenix City, Alabama, had always been a frontier sort of town. Just across the Chattahoochee River from Columbus, Georgia, and Fort Benning, it had been the home of bars, gambling dens and brothels until one night in 1954. That night brought out the National Guard to clear
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Introduction For a first blog about US medals I thought that it would be appropriate to highlight the behind-the-scenes deliberations that were instrumental in creating the modern American medals system that exists today. What I’ve done is copied a half dozen or so US National Archives documents
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Connecticut Medal of Valor Established in 1955, the Connecticut Medal of Valor is the state’s highest award for military heroism in the performance of duty in state emergency operations. The criteria specify that the act be “conspicuous gallantry, at the risk of life, above and beyond the
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Donald Trump is not the first controversial politician in American history and probably won’t be the last. Governor (later Senator), Huey P. Long, of Louisiana, was among the most controversial politicians of his time and will always rank near the top of the list for colorful statements.
Read more →Since February is Black History Month, this is a medal relating to the largest mass movement among African-Americans in the early part of the 20th century. The Cross of African Redemption appears in numerous photographs of Marcus Garvey, who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Marcus
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In 1995, the Russian Federation decided to award medals to about 9,000 Americans who had supported the Russian war effort in World War II. Many of the recipients were merchant seamen and Maritime Service personnel who had brought in millions of tons of supplies, equipment and food
Read more →My name is Jeffrey Floyd and I’m a medal collector. I’ve been in this fascinating hobby for over 50 years and, in addition to medals, have always accumulated information, whether or not I could use it at the time. I chose the name “Medal Collectors’ Cooperative” for
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