Purple Heart Medal

The original medal is in excellent collector's condition. The issue of the early 2000s. The fact is that in the spring of 1945, the United States was preparing an operation to invade Japan. President Truman had not yet made a decision about the atomic bombing, hesitating before a difficult moral choice: kill several hundred thousand Japanese, including civilians, or send about the same number of his own American soldiers to death. It was then that several large enterprises received an order for the manufacture of half a million Purple Heart medals: the American army was preparing for enormous losses during the invasion of Japan. The invasion never took place, and the medals were used for another half century, as the total losses of the US Army in the following wars did not exceed five hundred thousand people. So the "Purple Hearts" minted in 1945 were then received by veterans of the Korean War, Vietnam, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and even Libya. Moreover, at some point the command decided to abandon any lavish ceremonies, so the medals were simply awarded according to the lists of the dead and reports from military hospitals. In the late 1990s, the 1945 medals began to run out, as a result of which an additional order for their production was placed in various companies. The new awards featured simplified workmanship, gold paint spraying instead of full-fledged gilding, and a new plastic case. Guarantee of authenticity.

The Purple Heart is a U.S. military medal awarded to all American military personnel who have died or been injured as a result of enemy actions. The Purple Heart sign was installed by George Washington in 1782. Officially, only three such awards were awarded, and it was no longer used until 1861. Initially, it was made simply from silk fabric, which was stretched over a silver heart-shaped bracket. In 1861, the U.S. Congress decided to establish the Medal of Honor, which thus became the highest distinction in the country only because there were no orders in the United States. The medal was made of gold in the form of a five-pointed star with a trefoil at the ends of its rays. Because of this, the Purple Heart was in second place in importance. The modern Purple Heart Medal was created on February 22, 1932, by a directive signed by the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, Douglas MacArthur, in honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Washington. It was stamped from tin covered with purple enamel. Until 1942, the Purple Heart was awarded only to members of the U.S. Army. At first, awards were made for military merit, and a combat wound was also regarded as a merit. Since 1943, the medal has been awarded exclusively for combat wounds. After the Korean and Vietnam wars, the Purple Heart was given to every seriously wounded person without much ceremony, simply according to the appropriate hospital lists.