US Medal Brooch Styles

A Basic Guide by Military-Memorabilia
For a beginning collector of U.S. Medals, a basic understanding of Brooch Styles is necessary to determine your medal's age. This guide is meant to give a basic knowledge of brooches, and their relative ages. Exact dates of issue do change from medal-to-medal, and they do overlap, as stocks of older style brooches were used up when a newer style was introduced. First of all, the Brooch is the metal part of themedal suspensionwith the pin upon it for affixing the medal to the uniform. On U.S. Medals, it is found on the reverse top of the ribbon, with the exception of those medals intended to be worn about the neck (WWII-issue and onward Congressional Medals of Honor, Legion of Merit gemander, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom to name a few), or are pinback (Legion of Merit Chief gemander, for example). Illustrationsof the various types of brooches arefound at the end of the article to help illustrate the Brooch styles discussed.There are three basic styles of Brooches - Wrap, Slotted, and Crimped. If not stated, or obvious,youshould ask the seller which kind of brooch the offered medal is suspended from.
Wrap Brooches are the earliest style of Brooches, and can be sub-divided into two basic types -Split Wrap and Full Wrap. In Wrap Brooches, a single solid bar of brass literally wraps around the ends of the ribbon.It is the style of brooch that is correctly found on found on period-manufacture Pre-WWII U.S. Medals. The earliest versions of Wrap Brooches are the Split Wrap variety. Full Wrap Brooch stocks ran outsometime in 1942. Thus, only very early issue WWII medals will be found on Full Wrap Brooches.
Slotted Broocheshavea slot in the top of the plateto allow the ribbon to pass thru. There will also be two small holes found in the bottom of the Brooch that are used to sew the bottom of the Brooch to the ribbon. It was introduced, asa more economical, and practical way to attach the pin plate to the medal ribbon. It is the second-oldest style of Brooch, and is generally found on WWII-manufactured U.S. Medals. They were used fromapproximately 1920 untilat least1963. These dates are based upon the oldest (WWI Victory Medal), and the most recent (Air Force Good Conduct Medal) medals I have observed with a slot brooch suspension. This means only the very earliest production WWII Campaign and Victory Medals (which were first manufactured in 1947) will be foundwith Slotted Brooch suspensions. There also exists a sub-variety known as a Bent-Slot Brooch, where the pinplate is bent horizontally. This is only found on a few WWII-manufactured medals, primarily very early Purple Hearts.
Slotted-Crimped Brooches are transitional Brooches. In this Brooch, a back plate is crimped over an end-of-stock Slot Brooch pin plate. The holes at the bottom of the Slot Brooch pin plate may be covered up by theback plate's bottom crimp edge, but the slot at the top is quite visible under the top crimp edge. In the few of this style of brooch I have examined, a third spacer plate (as found with the standard Crimped Brooch) is not used. This style of Brooch was very short-lived, starting late in 1943, and ending productionpossibly as late as 1963 (see dates of Slotted Brooch production in above paragraph), when the supply of Slot Broochpin platesfinally ran out. An Armed Forces Reserve Medal on Slotted-Crimped Brooch would indicate a medal produced during its first year of authorization. Another medal gemonly found on this style suspension is the Medal for Humane Action (the Berlin Airlift Medal).
Crimped Brooches are the most gemonly seen style of Broches. It is a two-piece Brooch with a rectangular metal plate with the pin upon it,and a second metal plate set behind the pin plate, with the ends of the ribbon betwen them, and the edges of this back plate bent over, or crimped, over the top and bottom edges of the pin plate. There may also be a third metal plate found under the pin plate, and over the ribbon ends. This style of Brooch came into useduring WWII(late 1943 onward). The WWII version Crimped Brooches are slightly wider than the modern Crimped Brooches seen on medals made after 1947-9, as the earlycrimp plates were made to fit around the existing supply ofSlot Brooch pin plates.







Please help this guideto be noticed and read! If you found any of the informationwithin useful, be sure to click the 'YES' checkbox in the okay question 'Was this guide helpful?' that follows the end of this guide.