I don't collect medals, but I bought a couple and have questions...

cmerlo1

I spent quite a bit of time looking at a dealer's inventory at the Houston show a couple of weeks ago, and wanted to buy SOMETHING from him. He had a box of miscellaneous stuff, and I picked these two medals out, mainly because they looked old and I like the art-deco style they have. I got them for $2 each. A couple of questions:

1. Are these anything special? It looks like the B&L Award medal is not valuable (I looked at sold listings on eBay), but this one looks a lot older than the ones I found and appears to be made out of a different metal.
2. Is there a way to remove the green corrosion (while it's very PVC-looking, I don't think it is) from the Humble Oil medal?

Thanks as always for your help.

291fifth

The Humble Oil medal may be lacquered. Since you aren't into this medal for very much you may try removing the lacquer coating and see what happens. I haven't seen that medal before but find the subject to be very interesting.

MedalCollector

You did well on the Humble Oil medal. I believe this is MACO, right? Removing whatever is on there could go either way from an eye-appeal standpoint, and will likely not significantly impact the value either way, either, IMO.

The B&L medal has strangely oxidized/toned, but I don't necessarily think it was produced from a different metal. I wonder if someone out there has done a die study/ variety attribution for this medal. I would not be surprised; there are some dedicated niche collectors!

jonathanb

$2 each is a no-brainer. The Bausch and Lomb medal is common, but certainly worth $2. I love the design of the Humble Oil medal. I've owned a few of those. There's a later-date restrike in some white-ish metal (pewter, etc). Your bronze is original. I was surprised at how little these sell for. You can find them in the $20-$30 range with some patience. I don't care; I like it anyway.

WillieBoyd2

I remember the Bausch & Lomb awards from my high school in 1965.
I didn't know about the medal and I thought that $50 came with the award but that wasn't so.
The one award that year went to a friend named Doug who later worked for Apple Computers.

Zoins

Those medals are both very cool. The WWII theme and thanking of both men and women reminds us of all doing our part for the country. The Bausch and Lomb medal has a nice Art Deco design.

ricko

Very nice medals... the Humble Oil medal is a clear reminder of when patriotism was a driving force in the United States.... Cheers, RickO

DCW

Beautiful medals. $2ea? Careful, cause now the bug will bite you, causing you to spend real money!

cmerlo1

Thanks, everyone- I really appreciate the comments and advice. It sounds like the best course of action is to not do anything to them but enjoy.