The Road to Kabul

Collectors at heart IF I were to ask you to name your “fantasy” medal(s), the ones you’d buy if money were no object, I am fairly sure they’d come from a small list. If we assume you purchase all the family medals you’re able then I guess next would be a Victoria Cross; a Charger of some kind (Light Brigade, Heavy Brigade, 21st Lancers); something from the big “Zulu” battles; a battle of Britain pilot’s DFC; a Defence of Legations China War (see News & Views this month if you want one) or Defence of Mafeking QSA; a large Gold Trafalgar NGS; an Army Gold Cross, or Naval or Army Gold Medal, or perhaps a Special Forces group (maybe Iranian Embassy or Falklands SAS). You might be an outlier and plump for a “She died” Memorial Plaque, a Dickin Medal or Suffragette Medal, or might decide you wanted a little pizzazz in your life and opt to spend your money on a set of regalia from the Order of the Bath or the Thistle. Am I right? Did your “fantasy medal” come from that list? Even if it didn’t, I bet you found yourself thinking “I wouldn’t say no”. That’s fine, I don’t blame you, I’d be the same, but I wonder why? Why do I want to own one of the “biggies”? What is it about such medals that appeal? It’s unlikely to be the research aspect, after all particularly for VC winners most of the research will have already been done by others, even “chargers” have all mostly been written up by someone else and with today’s research tools I’d be unlikely to be able to find out more. I can’t imagine I’d be able to shed further light on the actions either, is there anything else that can be found out about Rorke’s Drift or Trafalgar? Is it just the thrill of knowing that you own something expensive that will keep going up in value? I doubt it, if you’re a Euromillions winner the “investment” angle won’t bother you, if you have £50million in the bank your Army Gold Cross doubling in value in ten years isn’t going to matter one bit! So why would most of us, given endless funds, seek out medals that probably have no connection whatsoever with what we’ve been collecting up until now? I think the answer lies with that word “collecting”; we are collectors, we like to accumulate things and most of us only have “themes” because we know we couldn’t afford everything we came across. We limit ourselves to things that we consider “on theme”, set ourselves parameters because we know we’d be broke and probably very single if we simply went after everything that caught our eye. I know that there are collectors who do that, collect whatever they like the look of, but I also know that most of us need the focus that a theme brings, it allows us not to get carried away. Given endless cash though, getting carried aways becomes less of a problem and so our natural collecting instincts come to the fore—and those instincts are to go for the rare pieces, the ones that don’t come up that often because it is they that make a collection a collection rather than just an accumulation. Another example might be taken from my other collecting passion—whisky. I don’t simply walk into a supermarket and buy a bottle of Bells or Famous Grouse every week, I don’t fill my collection with ordinary bottles I could buy anywhere, but seek out single cask bottlings, discontinued expressions, bottles from closed distilleries etc. But even then, I’d be broke if I bought everything out there (plus I’d run out of room) so I stick to certain themes, Islay malts, those aged in certain casks, those with certain age statements etc. Macallan, one of the most famous, and certainly more expensive whiskies, doesn’t feature much for me but if I were to win the lottery tomorrow, I’m fairly certain I’d want a bottle of their 50 year old (it’s what James Bond enjoyed in Fleming’s novels), it’s a rarity, a “Holy Grail” for collectors but at anywhere from £60,000–245,000 it’s not something I’m able, or willing, to buy just now. Given endless cash however, well that’s a different story. We buy and collect medals for all sorts of reasons, but deep down the main one is simply that we are collectors, and if it wasn’t medals it would be something else. I bet for many of you it is, and medals are just one of the things you collect. I hope it’s not whisky though, prices are high enough as they are at the moment, I don’t need any more competition!