Posted 13 years ago
Militarist
(295 items)
The US Steel Corp. issued an extensive series of long service medals over the years. Most commonly encountered are the medals for 10 - 50 years of service awarded in 5 year increments. Each medal exists with three different suspension types and from three different makers that I know of creating potentially 71 different types not counting naming variations. Though not an independent nation, in economic productivity and numbers of medals issued, US Steel would probably out rank more than half of the world’s medal issuing nations. Back in the day when these medals were issued many people actually worked well beyond their 50th employment anniversary and so many people actually got their 50 year medals that I would consider the medals scarce but not rare. The current high gold prices may change this since low collector demand will probably result in many of the gold versions being scrapped. Recently I bought another the USS gold medal on ebay. The listing had a very blurry scan and did not mention the years of service. I was the high bidder and when I saw the medal in person I found it to be a 55 year medal which answered my question concerning employees who worked beyond the magic 50 year anniversary. US Steel News magazine reportedly also has a report of an employee getting a 60 year medal !!