Freshening up - NO LONGER AVAILABLE

So September is on us already and with it come the two most important events in the Medal Calendar – the Orders and Medals Research Society Annual convention and the launch of the MEDAL YEARBOOK. Happily these events coincide on September 22 (we must confess to timing the book launch for the OMRS and not the other way round!) and we are confident that this year, as in the past, the book will receive a warm welcome. One of the challenges of maintaining that warm reception is to ensure that the MEDAL YEARBOOK remains as relevant to the hobby today as it has always been and to that end we do our utmost to ensure that the work is constantly updated and kept ‘fresh’. Of course there are elements that simply cannot be changed – the history of a medal its description etc remain set in stone; a VC is a VC regardless of how ‘fresh’ want to make our work, however certain elements can and do change year on year. Most important of course are the prices included in the book and this year is no exception – indeed with the volatility of the market in the past 12 months it has been more important than ever to ensure that the prices are fully updated and we have had our team of experts including leading dealers and Auctioneers on the case for some time. Not all prices have changed of course but many have and all those updates are included in the new edition, once again making the MEDAL YEARBOOK a must have for anyone serious about their hobby. Also included for the first time is a section on modern Canadian Awards; continuing our series of modern Commonwealth Medals, Canada seemed the most logical to include next and in addition we have included more medals and illustrations to the other sections. However as those of you who purchased the 2001 edition would have noted the inclusion of Indian Medals increased the size of the book and it was felt that to include Canada on top of those medals would be to make the 2002 edition too bulky; the idea of splitting the book into two volumes had been considered however that proved unrealistic and so in order to make room for the new sections the Indian medals have, for this year, been omitted meaning that the MEDAL YEARBOOK is still the perfect size to carry round shows, auctions etc. Other new features for 2002 include articles on Naval medals 1790 –1888 and a very useful section on the history of British Regiments, essential for research purposes especially in light of amalgamations, name changes etc. For example we know that the 24th Foot became the South Wales Borderers but what of the 23rd Foot? And if you wanted to visit the Regimental Museum of the Devon regiment would you know to visit Dorchester in Dorest (The Devonshire Regiment and Dorset Regiment are now the Devon and Dorsets). Such information is guaranteed to enhance an already exceptional book and with the full colour medal ribbon chart once again being fully updated, 18 new medals included in the main body of the book and the Museum, dealer and Society directories fully overhauled and updated this Year’s edition promises to be the best ever. Of course the most obvious way to give the MEDAL YEARBOOK a ‘fresh’ new look every year has been with the overall appearance of the work and we have always endeavoured to make the book look as interesting as possible – this year is certainly no exception with an exciting NEW LOOK we are sure our readers will like as much as we do. To buy a copy of the NEW LOOK YEARBOOK simply see the advert on page , see us at the Orders and Medals Research Society Convention or visit www.tokenpublishing.com and don’t forget that there is, once again, a very limited number of hardback copies available.