Posted 13 years ago
Militarist
(296 items)
Advertising is the closest catagory I could think of to post this type of medal in. Perhaps Civilian or Corporate Long Service Medals should have a catagory of their own on this site? Illustrated here is a 25 year service medal from the Continental Fire Insurance Company in gold. There is a seemingly unlimited number of similar medals that have been issued by many different companies, many of which are in gold and silver. How many have survived the high gold prices is anybody's guess. If there are a few more collectors of these medals on site maybe we could start a catagory and begin cataloging these beautiful medals before they all vanish into the melting pots.
Thanks AR, The pins are much more common as a catagory and I generally do not collect them. The medals are scarcer and pre-date the pins. The medals and pins are actually a form of advertising so maybe a subcatagory under advertising might be the way to go.
I posted this mainly to find out if I am the only one collecting these medals without the intention of melting them.
US Steel was the most prolific issuer of long service medals. The medals were issued for 10-50 years in 5 year increments. The 10-20 year versions are bronze, 25-45 year medals are sterling silver and the 50 year is gold. The medals come in 3 different versions; fob type loop, round loop and no loop. The 10-45 year medals were made by two makers and the gold 50year medals were made by at least 3 different makers. Workers got the medals on each of the 5 year anniv. dates and also got credit for the years that they worked for companies before US Steel bought them up. Many of the 50 year workers worked beyond their 50th anniv.!
Thanks Thrifty