A complete guide to the US Navy awards of the Spanish-American War, including the Marine Corps Brevet Medal.

Each chapter contains an in-depth study of the medal, to include its history, production details, manufacturing variations, naming styles, and tips on spotting reproductions.

A meticulously researched and verified roster of all known recipients is included for each medal.

Hundreds of color photographs are used to illustrate variations of each medal. Details of brooch styles and other important identifying features.

453 large format 8.5 x 11 pages with 413 photographs and illustrations, 280 in color.

Available on Amazon. $79.95 plus shipping.

This book is the result of years and years of studying the US Navy medals of the Spanish American War and sorting out who made them, who got them and where the line is between a real medal and the other kind. Fake, spurious and meant to deceive. Allen Menke and John Strandberg have completed a lifetime of work with this book.

The medals are illustrated in all their varieties and iterations. There are excellent guides to the various strikes, so the reader will see the evidence right on the page as to what variety has what telltale or artifact to put a medal where it belongs in the pageant of US Naval Awards at the start of the 19th Century.

On a personal note, I hate two-column and three-column formats for books and magazines about coins and medals. The columnar format forces reductions in sizes to illustrations and often makes it impossible to see the obverse and reverse of a medal side by side at the size the author wanted, and the reader who wants to see exactly the point the author is making. On the page where the point is being made. There is one prestigious numismatic magazine that has no qualms about putting pictures of medals pages away from the copy about the medals. The reader needs a neck brace, a 2X monocle, a bookmark, nimble fingers, and a retentive mind to stitch together the thread of a numismatic narrative under these conditions. In U. S. Naval Awards etc., the book is a lonely example of full pages of copy. The authors do use two columns for Rosters, and other elements that lend themselves to that format. I really applaud the way they laid it out.

This is a book for anyone who is interested in how the US honored its military heroes and the stumbles the country made in that endeavor. Its successes and its failures. It is and will ever be a work in progress. This work is a snapshot of where the state of play was 125 year ago.

Harry adds:

For more information, or to order, see:
US Naval Awards of the Spanish-American War(https://www.amazon.com/US-Naval-Awards-Spanish-American-War/dp/B0DXCKWPN8/ref=sr_1_1)