Mounting Methods for Military Medals

There are two different medal mounting methods that are used. There are companies that provide professional medal mounting and they also provide recommendations on how the medals can be cleaned and maintained.

Medals can be worn in the swing mount style or court mount style. In the swing mount method, the word comes from how the medal swings from the ribbon. The medals are attached to a brooch that is in turn attached or pinned to the clothing fabric. This is more of a traditional method. In the court mount style, the medals will not move about; they will stay in place as intended. You can visit A1 Service Medals  to ask for pricing differences between the two mounting methods. When medals are court mounted, there is a backing board that they are attached to. The ribbons of the medals are also attached to the backing board. If you are currently serving in the Australian defence force, you are required to have your medals in this style. Court mounting requires more time and labour, so it is more expensive when compared to the swing mounting method.

The back of the medals is covered in court mounting style due to the backing board. However, in the swing mount method, the back of the medal is visible as it is not attached. When you are having the medals mounted for display purposes, it can be useful to have the back of the medals visible when required as well. This way, you can have the younger generation and the rest of the family see the design and wording at the back of the medal. This creates a bit of interest and it can be very informative as well. But you need to make sure that appropriate care is taken when touching the medals. Our skin tends to have a lot of oil and this can damage the material of the medal. Soft cotton gloves are recommended when handling medals.

There is some extra material included in the court mount style and therefore it can weigh a little more than swing mounted medals. But this is not a very noticeable weight and therefore doesn’t have much effect on selection. Something that you notice with swing mounted medals is that they are free to sway against each other and this produces a soft clanging. If you like the sound of this, you can request your medals to be mounted in this style. There is a risk of damage when medals are hitting against each other but as these medals will not be worn frequently, it is safe to mount them in the swing style. Your preferences count a lot when it comes to the medal mounting method. Court mounting is generally preferred over swing mounting as there is no risk of damaging or chipping the medals. In addition to these two methods, there is a bow mounted method as well. This is a traditional way of wearingsingle medals by ladies especially in formal events.