George V First Series Silver Coins

[Mr T 175]

I suppose the war medals had a different enough reverse design to not cause many issues, and the portrait at least seems a little smaller than that used on currency.

Just as an aside all WW1 silver medals in Australia were inscribed around the edge with the recipients

name rank etc. whereas in the UK they were not unless requested for at a charge.

As a little aside, someone took advantage of this in Australia a few decades ago and had some uninscribed British war medals engraved with the names of some noteworthy Australian soldiers: they sold them at auction but ended up in quite a bit of trouble when they were found out.

[Fubar 80]

As far as I know all WWI medals issued in the UK were inscribed with the recipients name.

WWII medals were not.

[jaggy 528]

I have my Grandfathers's WW1 medals. All three are inscribed with his name and regimental number. The 1914-1915 Star is inscribed on the back. The other two (Victory Medal and British War Medal) are inscribed on the edge.

My grandfather was not a wealthy man - he was a GPO sorter - so I doubt that he would have paid extra to have them inscribed.

Also, his George VI Imperial Service Medal is also inscribed on the edge with his name.

[ozjohn 647]

It seems that I was wrongly informed about the WW1 medal only being inscribed with the name rank etc. in Australia. Just goes to show you should always check things your self rather than accept what someone told you in passing.

[Peckris 579]

On 9 June 2015 at 2:52 AM, ozjohn said:

The article gives a credible explanation for the war years but the mint's quality suffered long after the war. Alloy changes may explain the problem but it still exposes design flaws in the original design as the same problems

still occurred on coins minted after WW1 with the only response was to introduce the low profile effigy from 1920 to 1926. It still represents an inordinate amount of time to correct the strike quality during this period and as stated before

To be fair, I've attributed ghosting to the depth of the obverse profile all the way through the articles. WW1 had nothing to do with that particular problem, but with die overuse and wear leading to poor definition on both faces.

[azda 979]

I've also seen ghosting on Victoria bronze which also had nothing to do with WW1

[jacinbox 36]

On 11/01/2016 at 9:24 PM, azda said:

I've also seen ghosting on Victoria bronze which also had nothing to do with WW1

Hapennies definitely.