Orange County California Medal

Normally when one thinks of a WWI local military service medal it produces a mental picture of a bronze medal or cross suspended by ribbon or chain from a brooch. Less common are medals in silver and gold. Most unusual are the few massive non-portable table medals like the medal given to the WWI veterans of Orange County California. This massive bronze medal is 77mm in diameter, 5.5 - 6 mm thick and weighs 7.5 ounces on a postal scale. The obverse has an American shield flanked by a soldier and sailor. The reverse has a landscape with oil wells and orange trees. The cost of the metal content plus the making of the special dies must have been considerable even back then.