The Coronation Medal was issued in 1953 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's ascension to the throne. It was announced from 10 Downing Street in April, 1953 that the Queen Elizabeth Coronation Medal would be issued as a personal souvenir to selected persons throughout the Empire and Commonwealth including members of the armed forces, various government ministers, public servants and officials, police etc. The medal was issued immediately after the Coronation on the 2nd June, 1953 and an approximate total of 138,214 medals were awarded.
Description:
Materials: The majority of the British medals and clasps are made of solid silver, though some were issue in bronze versions, mainly to Indian non-combatants. The majority of the British campaign awards are circular, usually 36mm in diameter.
Ribbons: Medals are worn suspended from their own specific ribbons. These were first made of silk but cotton was increasingly used as the nineteenth century developed. Their own colours often have a symbolic significance: the equal stripes of the ‘1939 to 1945 Star,’ for example, are dark blue to represent the service of the Royal and Merchant Navies, red, to represent that of the Armies and light blue to represent that of Air Forces.
Ribbon width can vary slightly though it is generally 32mm wide.
Ribbon – Dark red with two dark blue stripes at the centre, and narrow white stripes at the edges. (Female recipients could wear the medal on the left shoulder with the ribbon in a bow formation).
Type – Commemoration medal
Suspender - Ring
Eligibility – Commonwealth citizens
Awarded for – Community contribution
Established – 2nd June, 1953
Designer – Mr Cecil Thomas
Naming – Issued unnamed
Total Awarded – 138,214
Clasps – None issued
Description – A circular silver medal 32mm in diameter. The obverse features a crowned effigy of Queen Elizabeth II, facing right, in a high-collared ermine cloak and wearing the collar of the Garter and Badge of the Bath. The reverse shows the Royal Cypher “EIIR”, surmounted by a large crown. The legend around the edge of the medal reads “QUEEN ELIZABETH II CROWNED” “2nd JUNE 1953”.
This guide will help you through all the parts and descriptions of military medals
Sources:
Major L L Gordon ‘British Battles and Medals’
< gov.uk/medals-campaigns-descriptions-and-eligibility>
Some of the material on this page was also partially derived from
<en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ >
Which are released under the terms of
Creativecommons.org/licenses/by-s/3.0/.
