Comments for U.S. National Guard Coins

Comment on National Guard Coins Are Scarce by 3252Bruce

3252Bruce — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:40:02 +0000

Well, I am currently working on collecting battalion coins and higher from the Ohio National Guard, possibly even the air guard in ohio as well. I have also been working on a small collection of unique shaped coins. Nothing too spectacular, but I am also having one made that I will be using for awarding troops. I have also been fortunate to get a few fellow commanders at the company and battalion level to get interested in using it as an award as well. This overcomes part of the challenge of funding a coin by myself, so we spread the wealth a little basically. Thanks,
Bruce

Comment on National Guard Coins New to the Block by 3252bruce

3252bruce — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:39:13 +0000

I think one of the things holding back some collectors is a lack of knowledge and vocabulary concerning military terms, a lot of which turn up on the coins. Lets use a GAC as an example, a Ground Assault Convoy is a sight to behold, and done correctly help secure an AO, or Area of Operations. You get the idea, how do people collect something they cannot decipher. Maybe we can put together a list of common acronyms and vocabulary as we find it on coins??
Thanks
Bruce

Comment on National Guard Coins Are Scarce by 3252bruce

3252bruce — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:36:42 +0000

Well, this morning is a great example of how hard it is for NG and Reservists to even find coins. I had a small tub of coins, mostly rather minor ones in my opinion that I took into work at my civilian job. I showed them to a reservist there, who will probably end up buying half of them, and her assistant might get the other half. Kind of crazy, but the reality is that ng and usar just do not have people to talk to every day about military stuff, including coins. Getting the word out to these soldiers will exponentially increase coin collecting. So how do we spread the word……I am starting. We will be handing out cards with this and other web addresses over the next few months, lets see how big this can truly become.
Thanks,
Bruce

Comment on National Guard Coins Are Scarce by 3252Bruce

3252Bruce — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 02:46:42 +0000

Howdy, the reality is there is no funding for coins at the Battalion level or below in the National Guard, and limited funding at levels above that for National Guard unit coins. The second reality is these soldiers also have other careers, in some cases more or less important than their military one. I have more than a few National Guard coins from over the years, but typically those have been limited to unit members, and not for sale. I have also witnessed cases where active duty HQ’s and CDR’s have walked through joint units and awarded coins to active component soldiers, walking around national guard soldiers to get to the Active guys. Unfortunate, but a true story seen more than once. At the troop level those stereotypes seem more rare today, but when looking at higher cdr’s that grew up in the military over the past 20+ years, there are still feelings of differences between components. Not so much for todays young troops, but definitely feelings from the old breed. I have coins from the NG SF unit, several Trans units, two different Troop Command units, Leapfest in Rhode Island, and a few others, all award/earned while in the Guard. The key difference might just be the lack of a PX in each town with an armory, thereby limiting the chance to sell them in bulk to these troops.
Thanks,
Bruce