My french medals collection.

[david113081]

Hello this is my first post ever here but I thought I would it would be nice to share with you my collection of French medals They span a good 100 years + from the Napoleonic wars to the Algerian war of independence. Please feel free to make any comments.

[harryamb2]

nice start still a few to go.

[david113081]

Thanks for the comment,
I started collecting French medals last year and I am focusing of campaign medals. France had a really interesting history with wars and campaigns spanning from Europe,Africa,Asia and central America, it is a pretty under rated genre in my opinion. In the future I hope to expand into orders and various war crosses.

[SailorTzipi]

שָׁלוֹם עֲלֵיכֶם

Great medals.
I'm interested in French WW2 medals.

[david113081]

Shalom to you too!

I love French medals and their history and I think it is a highly under rated genre. Also it is fairly easy to learn how to detect originals compared to the later re struck versions. I collected Third Reich medals for a few years but I got tired of worry if ever medal I bought was "real". I can tell you how many times I went into forums asking "hey guys is this legit" too me that is not a fun hobby.
I may start collecting French foreign legion badges as well in the near future.

[SailorTzipi]

How can you tell if it has been re struct?

Very true about collecting German medals and its a shame. My favourite medal is the French and Belgian Croix De Guerre just love it!

[david113081]

Well basically the Paris mint re struck all its medals for veterans and whatnot, so when ever you see French medals and they are really shiny instead of the dark bronze then you know they are not period era. Also on some of the older campaign medals the ball suspension will be a olive shape and with more "modern versions" the suspension is ball shaped. They are in no way fake medals they are just re makes for vets. Kind of like how American medals are. I also love the Croix de guerre but every time I seem to get one I always end up re selling it. Hey you are from Scotland, do many people aged 20's to 30's collect militaria?

[SailorTzipi]

I don't know why but I just love the design. I'm only collecting WW2 medals, but I'm collecting the CdG from WW1 too because I love them.

Thanks for the info! Now I know what I'm seeing!

There aren't many but I think collecting militaria is like collecting stamps. It's a hobbie that was popular at some point but the kids these days arent interested, but the are 20's and 30's out there somewhere

What's the militaria like in Yisrael? Many stores? Many collectors?

[david113081]

Well its a small country here so the market is even smaller, there are only 2 flea markets that I know of in the whole country. IDF militaria in my opinion is nothing exciting just cheap aluminium pins badges, but some of the earlier badges can bring in very high prices. No one I know here collects which in a sense is good because I have found some very expensive things here dirt cheap and resold them on ebay and was able to buy some good French and British medals. The younger people here have no sense of history sadly, they are more interested in little gadgets/ video games and name brand clothing.

[Spitace41]

Great collection. I agree that French medals are under- rated. You get a lot of history for your money IMO. Speaking of which, I have always wanted to get a St. Helena medal, struck for French veterans of the Napoleonic Wars.