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Medals

Medals may be safely kept in boxes made of hoop pine plywood or acid-free cardboard. Some woods that are often used to make small cabinets, such as oak, mahogany, chipboard and ordinary plywood, are acidic, and can harm metals and fabrics. However, these can be made usable by completely covering them inside and out with three coats of polyurethane resin, obtainable from a hardware store. Let the resin dry thoroughly until no odour remains.

Medals should be individually wrapped in acid-free tissue paper or well-washed fabric, preferably undyed, to prevent them rubbing against each other. Soft cotton and linen fabrics such as sheets, handkerchiefs or tea towels are suitable. Fabrics such as velvet should not be used because some contain acidic dyes.

If the medals are to be worn, it is best if they are properly mounted. 'Court' mounting is the preferred style as medals are fixed so that they do not swing freely to hit each other, possibly chipping design details. Professional medal mounters are listed in the Yellow Pages and some regularly advertise in ex-service organisation newsletters and journals.

If you frame your medals to display them, remember medal ribbons are vulnerable to light damage. On balance, it is better to store them in the dark. Light can fade the dyes in ribbons in a short time and make the fibres brittle, especially if they are silk. Some veterans buy replica medals to display, but keep their originals safely stored.

Sometimes medals may need to be cleaned. Cleaning a medal is not difficult, but you should work slowly and carefully. If you are worried that the treatment is harming the medal-stop. Do not polish medals unless absolutely necessary because the process may damage the sharpness of the design or remove too much metal from the surface. Also, some polishes contain silicone which, if left on the surface, makes applying a protective coating difficult and later cleaning more drastic than usual.

The sidebar box 'How to clean medals' gives full instructions on the processes.