Never mind golden balls: Pre-WW1 medal saved from melting

WOLVERHAMPTON, U.K. - Aug. 27, 2014 - PRLog -- Wolverhampton, 26^th August: A solid gold football medal was discovered at H&T Pawnbrokers scrap department where an intrigued employee and football supporter set it aside. ‘The football league England V Ireland’ is engraved on the front, and on the reverse side, ‘Belfast Oct 1st 1913. Football League 2 Irish League 0’ followed by the name ‘D.Shea’.

With a little research, H&T Pawnbrokers ascertained that this medal was awarded to English footballer Danny Shea (1887–1960), who, throughout his career, played for West Ham United, Blackburn Rovers, Fulham, Coventry City and Clapton Orient.

‘Part of my job is to sort through big bags of scrap precious metal, pulling out anything of interest, and this medal caught my eye. I felt the medal had much more value as a historic collector's item than it did as a piece of scrap gold, so went about finding an appropriate home for it. I contacted the National Football Museum in Manchester who gave me the details of a collector who would be interested.’ says the valuer.

The National Football Collection supplies items to display for free to the National Football Museum. They were delighted when H&T Pawnbrokers contacted them with this medal awarded to an England International just before WWI. In fact the medal had added a piece to the jigsaw in the career of Danny Shea.

William Andrews, consultant to the Collection said, "We already have the player’s League Championship Medal from 1914 which was the last Championship before the outbreak of the war and thought that other medals of his were lost for good." Mr Andrews went on to say, ‘The Museum is very interested in any players that were involved in the First World War and players like Danny Shea are very much part of this important time in history. It was fantastic to know that H&T Pawnbrokers recognised the potential importance of this piece and went out of their way to protect it. H&T Pawnbrokers have been very helpful throughout and we look forward to preserving any football medals they may obtain in the future and not letting them get lost for good.’

Alexander Jackson, Collections Officer at the National Football Museum in Manchester said, ’We are very happy that this medal has been purchased by the National Football Collection who are a great supporter of the National Football Museum’.

The National Football Collection picked the medal up from their closest H&T store on Queen Street in Wolverhampton on Tuesday 12^th August.