TOPIC:

Over two hundred thousand pounds!
Really?

QSAMIKE wrote: Copied from Stolen Medals section of BMF......
One in particular, Dugal Mc Phail’s one of the Founders of Dundee and one of the few survivors from the Battle of Isandlwana (Zulu-War 1879)his medal one of its kind in the World and conservatory valued at R4,200,000.00 – GONE!

Frank
I think not! The McPhail medal referred to is a no clasp Natal Rebellion Medal with a retail value of probably less than 200 pounds. As I understand it, the medal was awarded to the son of Quartermaster Dugal McPhail of the Buffalo Border Guard, one of the survivors of the Battle of Isandlwana. Had it been the father's medal it would be valued upwards, but by how much I cannot guess.

The two medals named to the Officer Commanding and Sergeant Major of the Buffalo Border Guard do have a high value, but again they need to be tested on the commercial market to establish their value. The Sergeant Major was with the Colonials on the patrol under Major Dartnell (Natal Mounted Police) that went in search of the Zulu army and thereby missed both the Battles of Isandlwana and Rorkes Drift. The OC was away on an expedition to buy slaughter cattle for the army, so he too missed the two epic battles.

I think the stolen medals should be looked at from the 'local history' perspective. All were probably donated to the Talana Museum by residents of Dundee, or their families, so they reflect both the military and social histories of residents of the town. In this respect they are irreplaceable.

The thief went to a great deal of trouble (and expense if he employed professional criminals to do his dirty work), and both his expectations and motive are a puzzle.

Regards
Brett

I agree Brett, having seen the list of stolen medals I don't think this was a steal to order by any kind of medal collector.

I am sure the medals will be fenced for low value and they will surface when someone tries to get anything approaching their market value from a medal dealer or jeweller (who hopefully will recognise the medals for what they are).

Interestingly, a broken QSA group is amongst the missing and one medal of the group has been on the market recently.

Hello Brett,
I was merely reading both posts from Mike and David, but, quite frankly, these medals do not appear anything really special, Mike's post left me more than a little confused with that conservative valuation, but, this needs to be put into some sort of perspective, someone, has gone to an awful lot of trouble, seemly, for very little.
It is very sad if those medals were donated from local sources and all have a local link to the Dundee district.
Kind regards Frank

Frank Kelley wrote: Hello Brett,
I was merely reading both posts from Mike and David, but, quite frankly, these medals do not appear anything really special, Mike's post left me more than a little confused with that conservative valuation, but, this needs to be put into some sort of perspective, someone, has gone to an awful lot of trouble, seemly, for very little.
It is very sad if those medals were donated from local sources and all have a local link to the Dundee district.
Kind regards Frank

Hi Frank.....

If you note Frank that my posting was copied from one that was on BMF and it was their evaluation......

The loss though even if it is $100.00 to $1,000,000.00 is bad and sad enough.....

Mike

LOL Mike, yes indeed and I was confused by it's content, another good reason not to be a member there.