British Victorian Era, Crimea & Mutiny Pair, 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers
This item is listed for historical interest only. It was listed on our site previously but has been sold and is no longer available for purchase.
Sold for: $400.00

Original period manufacture. An honest pair of original Victorian era Crimea & Indian Mutiny medals which have been re-named on their edges, and named to 4058 Pte C Smith, R.W. Fus. in each case. That 4058 Private Charles Smith served with the 23rd Foot, Royal Welsh Fusiliers in the Crimea and India is true, that he was awarded medals with these particular clasps is also true, recorded on the microfilm copies of his discharge paperwork, and the appropriate medal rolls for him which are available online.  Copies of that paperwork will be included with the purchase.  Re-naming of medals occurs for a number of reasons; medals get lost or stolen and the soldier or a family wants a replacement set, so down to the local pawn shop they go, or, the specter of fraud and ill-gotten gain raises it's ugly head. I feel in the case of our Private Smith, it is more of the former, rather than the latter. He was a private soldier in a good regiment, but no poems or fame can be attributed to him, or his unit. He was a simple soldier who did his duty for Queen and country, and either lost, or had his medals stolen from him somewhere along the line. Accompanying the medals at the time of our purchase (more on that later) are several certificate sheets  produced by a UK medal researcher dated 1981. These confirm the clasps which adorn these medals, and also are included with the medals.I purchased these medals recently from a very well-regarded, auction house in the UK. Now their auction starting time is 10:00am London time, so in order to be johnny-on-the-spot, and ready to bid online with a seven hour time difference, yours truly had to be up and ready by 2:00am Arizona time. So well armed with several cups of black coffee I was ready.After my successful win of the lot which caused all this hurry, I was feeling rather "chuffed" as our UK pals would say, and continued watching the online bidding results. Soon, a few more Crimea lots went by and I thought to myself, "self, those are going rather reasonably", so off I went, ending up with more than I bargained for with the additional purchase of three other Crimea groups. I thank that is called auction fever or something like that. In the end, these are a nice set of old Victorian medals from an old, established collection in England, and priced rather reasonably if I do say so myself. Good Collecting.