Early Spanish American War 1898-1902 Service Medal Numbered Bronze Veteran USWV

Description: Iconic Spanish American War Veterans 1898-1902 Bronze Medal. This early example is B Prefix & Numbered 39,478. It was produced by Jos Mayer Co and has there hallmark under the serial number! The medal itself is produced out of bronze! The medal has a very nice patina! This one has a bit of a strange little oddity, the cross bar for the ribbon the bottle medal piece is actually not soldered on, its not that it broke off or was damaged, it purposely wasn't soldered I wonder if for a time they tried having them as slip format this allowing ribbons to be changed easier and top bars to be replaced! Also oddly while I seem to see a lot of B Prefix medals in the 50,000s // I couldn't not find a single other B Prefix medal in the 30,000s rather strange! Condition is very good and it clearly saw little to no wear. When I found it the seller was trying to sell off he 2 pieces separately luckily I caught it in time and bought both pieces! These medals were worn and given out to members of the United Spanish American War Veterans. Prior to 1904 3x groups existed the Spanish War Veterans, Spanish American War Veterans & Servicemen of the Spanish War. The 1st type medal was awarded to these groups. Later in 1904 the 3x groups combined form one group the United Spanish American War Veterans , the type one medals would be revised to now have united in the center of the reverse! In or just before 1910 they would move to the Type 2 version of the medal ( this example is a type 2) , serial numbers for type 2 either are straight numbers no prefix and on the bottom cross bar not the top / A prefixed or B prefixed. There is a lot of history surrounding these medals and a lot more digging needed. I do not believe there is currently anyway to trace these medals based of the prefix and number. Overall a very scarce piece of American War History. The Spanish American war is a largely forgotten conflict compared to the Civil War, WW1 & WW2 and is seldom taught or explained probably largely due to its short nature and minimal conflict in a a traditional war sense! Please check out my other militaria and collectibles! Thanks again for looking!

Price: 73 USD

Location: Esopus, New York

End Time: 2024-12-30T01:22:53.000Z

Shipping Cost: 7.5 USD