Medal valuation

[Melchett01]

Can any fellow Pruners recommend who to talk to about medal valuations? I’m in the middle of renewing the insurance on Melchett Towers, but it dawned on me I have no idea what value to insure the family medals for - my own and my grandfather’s WW2 and pre-war. I’m sure their value is more personal than financial, but you never know and I know a few of our cadre have some experience in the field, so I’m hoping you might be able to provide a steer. Many thanks.

[MPN11]

Surely TankerTrashNav has some residual knowledge?

[MightyGem]

I used Spinks for exactly the same reason. I've got mine, my father's and grandfather's. All bog standard, nothing spectacular. I seem to recall that they wanted payment for a full evaluation, but were kind enough to say that they were only worth about £600.
https://www.spink.com/#

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/MightyGem/P1050814_zps41f04ac5.jpg

[Tankertrashnav]

Melchett - PM me and I will send you my email address. If you wish you can then send details with photos if possible. I will be happy to value them for you - no charge as I am no longer in business.

Mighty Gem - without seeing the clasps on the GSMs I can't really say what I would value those at, but assuming they are fairly common clasps (Malaya, Cyprus etc) I would say Spinks are not too far out.

Rank and unit are of the recipient are very important when assessing value. A WW1 trio to a private in the ASC might only be worth £40 or so - the same three medals to a captain in the Royal Flying Corps might fetch several hundred. Maybe that doesn't seem fair, but that's the way it is

[teeteringhead]

A few years ago I used a firm - whose name sadly escapes me now - who valued my rather odd selection at about £5k, but that would have included "provenance" and possibly/probably log books too.

I sent them a photo and some background detail and it was all free.

Will try and dig up the details.

[Melchett01]

TTN,

Many thanks for the offer of help - PM sent.

Teeteringhead,

Whilst my grandfather's medals and my own are relatively common in the grand scheme of things, that they both come with full provenance is what I think makes them a little more interesting. My grandfather was a professional infanteer both pre/during/post-WW2, starting in a County Regt before moving to the Paras during the War. His pre-war service saw him operating in Burma which got him the IGSM (I believe), and somewhere I have his discharge papers, Warrant scroll and photos of him in various locations and at various ranks. His was a fascinating story if my grandmother's tales are to be believed. Mine are comparatively ordinary in comparison!

Melchett.

[Sloppy Link]

Are pretty good, they travel the country as well giving free valuations. Provenance is everything, first question I was asked is are they accomplanied by logbooks.

https://www.dnw.co.uk/auctions/medals-and-militaria.php

[Tankertrashnav]

I have used DNW to sell one or two "special" items in the past, and would say that they are very good as auctioneers. The same cannot be said about one or two other auctioneers whose names are almost universally known.

No names for fear of breaking PPRuNe rules!