Campaign & Valor Medals, ca. 1910
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APPRAISER:
Tell us what you brought to Roadshow today.
GUEST:
A box of medals that belonged to my great-aunt's husband. He served in the military between the late 1890s, on and off, until probably 1925. Actually, they were given to me when I was ten years old. They hung on my wall in my room until I grew up, and at some point, the medals started deteriorating, and I laid them down in a box, and that's really it.
APPRAISER:
Very good. The medals that you have here, it's kind of an interesting collection. You have a number of pieces from several different conflicts.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
It looks like the gentleman served in the Philippine Insurrection, and we know that because he has a Philippine campaign medal.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
He also served in World War I, and there's his World War I victory medal.
GUEST:
Correct.
APPRAISER:
He also was mobilized and was among the troops that were serving on the Mexican border during the Mexican border troubles in 1916, 1917, and we know that because he has several Mexican border service medals. But the key pieces that you have here relate to gallantry awards. This is the first one that he received. This is the Certificate of Merit medal. There's a number on the rim.
GUEST:
I never knew that.
APPRAISER:
That number is going to trace to his name.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
And then we can find out what he did. And as it turns out, he was an individual who was cited for gallantry for saving a wounded comrade while he was under fire from several Moros-- several of the insurrectos.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
At the end of the Spanish-American War, the United States liberated Cuba.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
And we defeated the Spanish in the Philippines, and the native Filipinos who had been fighting the Spanish at that time were living under the impression that they were going to receive the same treatment as the guys in Cuba…
GUEST:
Ah.
APPRAISER:
…and that they were going to end up with a free and liberated Philippines. But unfortunately for them, at that time, the American military was looking to be a world power. The Philippines was very strategically situated to be a coaling station for a world navy, and so we kept the Philippines as a U.S. territory. They… did not think highly of that idea and engaged in sort of an insurgency warfare. That's what this gentleman was involved in. The Certificate of Merit medal was awarded for that action. But then in World War I, Woodrow Wilson instituted the Distinguished Service cross, which is this medal right here.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
And a lot of those early Certificate of Merit medal awards were upgraded to a Distinguished Service cross at that time. This is one of those.
GUEST:
I'll be.
APPRAISER:
There is a number on that lower cross arm…
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
…That will trace back to him…
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
…Giving you the same gallantry citation.
GUEST:
I'll be darned.
APPRAISER:
And then on the back, we have his name. A Distinguished Service cross from World War I that has no name and no number, just a generic replacement medal…
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
…Is a $400 or $500 medal. A Distinguished Service cross from World War I with a name and a number will run, at retail… somewhere between $1,000 and as much as $2,000 or $3,000 depending on who the gentleman was and what he did.
GUEST:
I'm amazed.
APPRAISER:
Philippine Insurrection awards, where they've taken a Certificate of Merit…
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
…And they've upgraded it to a Distinguished Service cross, are quite rare, and a medal like that is going to be more in the neighborhood of $4,000 to $5,000.
GUEST:
I'm amazed.
APPRAISER:
Now, that's only the start of the good news. The original medal, the Certificate of Merit medal, numbered, traceable to a gallantry award recipient, is going to more than double that. Those are very scarce. And as a group, that's going to turn this into something that would be, at retail, around $11,000 to $13,000.
GUEST:
Wow. Amazing. Believe it or not, I almost didn't bring those with me.
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