Talk about jumping on the band wagon..........

[The Station Cat]

Found this on a medal dealers list, thought it might be amusing to share and get people's feedback, before you read the below, make note of the fact that the dealer wants......£260 for this trio.




Victorian issue 1887 Metropolitan Police Jubilee medal with clasp '1897' (P C. H. Duchemin. X. DIV). Edward VII 1902 Metropolitan Police Coronation medal (P.C. H. Duchemin. X. DIV.). George V 1911 Metropolitan Police Coronation medal (P.C. H. Duchemin.) Police Constable Harry Duchemin - Doing duty during the infamous "Jack the Rippers" and the WHITECHAPEL MURDERS

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Harry Duchemin was born in Beddington near Winchester, the eldest son of Louis Duchemin, a butcher and his wife Elizabeth residing at 43 Church Lane in Beddington. Harry now aged 20 years joined the Metropolitan Police 17 July 1882 with Warrant number 66895 serving with X Division. He resigned the force 22 July 1907, but rejoined and qualified for the 1911 Silver Coronation medal.

He would have served with the Metropolitan Police during the period of the infamous "WHITECHAPEL MURDERS" "during 1888. Harry Duchemin married at West Ham in 1892. With full details of which the above has been taken to include entry and service lists, Census entry, pension and other details to include the relative roll entry page for the 1911 Coronation and a CD with information I know not as have not uploaded to view. Medals are a pleasing close E.F. to Good E.F. A very nice long running police group to one doing duty during those "Jack the Ripper" murders.

[Rosella]

You'd hope that nobody who is at all knowledgable about the history of the Metropolitan Police would pay hundreds of pounds for these medals, but who knows! A fool and his money are soon parted!

Harry Duchemin had a quite lengthy and honourable career with the Met, but it's a long long walk from Kilburn to Whitechapel, and Harry wasn't among the four police officers who were temporarily transferred over during the Ripper Hunt.

[Joshua Rogan]

Beddington is a lot nearer Croydon than Winchester....

[The Station Cat]

You'd hope that nobody who is at all knowledgable about the history of the Metropolitan Police would pay hundreds of pounds for these medals, but who knows! A fool and his money are soon parted!

Harry Duchemin had a quite lengthy and honourable career with the Met, but it's a long long walk from Kilburn to Whitechapel, and Harry wasn't among the four police officers who were temporarily transferred over during the Ripper Hunt.

I entirely agree, even assuming the "list" isn't exhaustive, the chances of this chap serving in H Division at the time are tenuous to say the least. Unless there is some sort of provenance accompanying these medals, you could pretty much state the same thing for every 1887/97 Jubilee medal awarded.

[Shaggyrand]

Most collectors are crazy. Doesn't matter what they collect. I don't know much about the medal market but after a quick look, it doesn't seem like £86 each for pre-WWI medals, assuming they really are in EF to Good condition, is all that outrageous. Saw plenty in horrible condition from the 1910s for £40-60. Again that is just based on a couple minutes online with a handful of sites, so I could be way off base.

[ChrisGeorge]

Most collectors are crazy. Doesn't matter what they collect. I don't know much about the medal market but after a quick look, it doesn't seem like £86 each for pre-WWI medals, assuming they really are in EF to Good condition, is all that outrageous. Saw plenty in horrible condition from the 1910s for £40-60. Again that is just based on a couple minutes online with a handful of sites, so I could be way off base.

I agree that $86 each for these medals isn't exorbitant.

[The Station Cat]

If we put it into context then gents. As a collector I would look to be paying £48 tops for a single 1887 or 1897 Jubilee Medal. I have a 1897/1902 pair to an officer from J Division, who lived in Bethnal Green police station, during the Ripper's reign. I paid slightly over £100 for them. So to pay £260 for a group with no connection whatsoever to Whitechapel murders is sheer folly, which is the point I was trying to make. I certainly wouldn't pay that much.




With regards to other period medals, which has been commented on. This vastly depends on the nature of the medals, for example an 1879 Zulu war medal to the South Wales Borders could go for thousands, where as exactly the same medal to another regiment of the line might be a couple of hundred.

[The Station Cat]

This one, REALLY takes the biscuit......

Disposing of some items from my Jack the Ripper collection over the coming weeks. First up is this scarce medal.

Approximately 14000 Jubilee medals were issued to the Metropolitan Police with almost all being named to the officer. However, approximately 120 medals were kept as replacements. Some of these went to civilians working for the police which left a relatively small number as unnamed reserve stock, hence the rarity. Once applied for, these replacements were subsequently named to the officer and issued.

The example offered is one of these very small number of unnamed medals however, as can be seen from the pictures, this has been fitted with a mounting brooch and has obviously been proudly worn by the officer which makes this a scarce and unusual medal indeed. Comes with other medal ribbons (IGS 1895-1902, QSA 1899-1902, KSA 1901-1902) which suggests the officer saw military service after his police service.

Medal found with a period 1888 dated newspaper reporting the Whitechapel murders which may suggest he had some involvement in the Jack the Ripper case as did many police in London, and therefore possibly connected to either "J" Division or "H" Division? The officer left police service before 1897 as there is no 1897 bar to the medal and this could tie in with his military service (at least 1895-1902).

[Pcdunn]

While I don't know beans about police medals, I wonder why an unnamed medal would have been "proudly worn by the officer"?? Something's fishy there.

As for the newspaper, which I know a bit about from a librarian's viewpoint, I think that looks a lot more likely to be a 1988 anniversary replica paper (or even more recent, maybe) than a genuine 1888 one. Condition is far too good, and many companies sell replicas of famous newspaper headlines and issues.