Medals

[billy]

Hi, been asked a question Glider Pilot or maybe Navigator? But Medals are Africa, Italy campaign (Sicily?) Medals not claimed by recipient but by his Relatives recently, how does this work regards Value? Many thanks in advance Billy

[ianh67military]

If you have the 39-45 Star, Africa Star, Italy Star, Defence and War medals then they sell between 50 and 70 Quid on eBay.
If you have cast iron provenance or proof they were earned by a glider pilot then probably a couple of hundred Pounds. The provenance is all important. Original box? Original photos or documents? Documents from the Medal Office even? Even copies of things such as the above, possibly a letter of authentification from the family along the lines of “- these were the medals my Dad/Uncle/Grandfather won as a member of the GPR…his name was…he lived/died…
There is now a lot of information available on many of the GPRs battles including who flew what where and some research would pay off. Does anybody in the family have any stories, badges, especially wings, log books of his flying?
Medal collectors are interested in the whole story. As documented on here somewhere I once bought a stunning GPR officers cap badge which came with a name and a photograph. I was then able to trace what the chap had done, documenting a fascinating story of bravery at Arnhem before he was killed flying before the end of the war.
Best of luck with your investigations, let us know how it all goes.
Regards,
IanH

[Holyboy]

Ian’s offered up some good advice the medal market is awash with faked up groups as WW2 medals weren’t named it’s much easier. Later medals are not worth as much google late issue WW2 stars the most recent ones are cheap and awful imoo.

I’d want to see evidence they are genuine ie slips boxes etc but even these are faked so be careful see example below to the untrained it’s a WW2 group to someone who knows they are a faked up group in every regard fake slip fake box entitlement wrong and more but the medals are actually genuine. Some mug paid £200 for about £40 of medals.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185401318...mis&media=COPY