What happens when two or more adult children believe they are ‘entitled’ to mum or dad’s service medals? If you work in medal restoration and mounting you hear these stories often enough.
Our medals team say they have heard nightmare stories. Like the chap who lent his father’s WWII medals to his sister to have only half return – she actually cut the set in two and kept ‘her share’. In other cases sets have been broken-up and individual medals shared between siblings, but the story of service and the inherent value of the set is lost.
Many veterans, and families with a link to service, are having replica medal sets created so that each generation can share in their family’s proud story of service. While original medals will always be prized, high-quality replicas, which can be created to the exacting standards of originals, will be a treasured heirloom and may help avoid family breakdowns.
Former Victorian Policeman Arthur Mitchell, who is head of our Medal Services, says he has seen a massive increase in requests for replica sets in the past two years, both to create sets for family and also to protect valuable originals from loss, damage or theft.
The increase in replica sets being requested to share across families is, according to Arthur, “a wonderful development”, which means the originals can be passed down intact and other family members can each keep a set as part of their family history.
“We have also noticed that more and more people are having a number of replica medal sets created for special gifts to their children and grandchildren. This is a special way in which they can share and pass down their military history to the next generations.”
In terms of security of medals, Arthur says there is little people can do about theft of originals, other than buying a secure safe, but when it comes to preventing the loss of medals the safest option is to wear replicas rather than originals.
“We handle thousands of orders for replica medals each year - from the Boer War through to Afghanistan, and the team is well versed in interpreting military service records to determine what awards were bestowed. The team also provides one of Australia’s leading medal mounting and refurbishing services.”
Arthur says the company places great care in protecting originals entrusted to it for these services. “Every medal is treated as a priceless heirloom and security measures see the medals stored in fireproof safes, hand-delivered between experts when required and tracked while moving about the facility.”
“We take no chances. These are priceless and irreplaceable. At every stage, we have original medals secured in safes or in the hands of trusted people. If the owner insists on posting we insist on using our secure courier. Nothing is worth the risk of losing an original medal.”
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