WWI Victory Medal with Defensive Sector Clasp and Box

General Pershing himself proposed the Defensive Sector clasp to the WWI Victory Medal. He wanted to recognize soldiers who had served in the front lines, but may not have participated in a battle. These men still faced mortar and artillery fire, gas attacks, snipers, and probing attacks by the enemy. Soldiers who had served in relative safety behind the lines were authorized the France clasp. Pershing wanted a clasp to differentiate soldiers who had faced the enemy from those who remained, as soldiers call it, “in the rear with the gear.”

It’s unusual to find a WWI Victory medal that only has the Defensive Sector clasp. Almost always, if a soldier had earned this clasp, he had also earned at least one battle clasp. Most likely, this soldier did not remain with his unit long enough to participate in a battle. Perhaps he was wounded or fell sick and had to be evacuated before his unit “went over the top” or maybe he was a replacement late in the war.

This is a highly unusual box as it is only marked for the Defensive Sector, and it did not come with the medal. I’ve always considered the possibility of a medal being paired with a box by some collector and sold together, especially when the medal exhibits wear. Usually though, it’s hard to match the medal clasps with the stamps on the box. All I can do is be honest when it comes time to sell.

This one-piece white box comes from the third of the three medal contractors, the Art Metal Works of Newark, N.J. I’ve posted examples of the other two contractor boxes in the last couple weeks. The box is a bit long for the medal, but I've personally only seen three boxes from each company: “Victory Medal Complete without Clasp”, “Victory Medal Complete with (Country) Clasp” and “Victory Medal Unassembled with Pin,” the last of these being a longer box, since those were assembled at the quartermaster depot and could have a longer ribbon for four, five, six or more clasps.