China The Great Wall Silver Medal

I am brand new to this forum and so I'm not sure if this is the right section for this thread.

I would be happy to get any feedback since I am brand new and as of this time know very little about the China Great Wall silver medal I have. Here's the story of the Great Wall medal I own...

Back in the mid to late 1980's, a couple of years after graduating high school, not looking to buy anything but a couple of new shirts, I came across a coin dealer who had a store in a mall in a rapidly expanding Asian community here in Flushing, New York.

I had no interest at all in coins or silver at this time but I did have a great fascination with Chinese history and especially the Boxer Rebellion and the Great Wall of China. As I was passing the coin dealer's shop, my eye was struck by a shiny Great Wall medal.

I asked the woman if I could see this beautiful medal and after about a minute of being transfixed by the detail and the inscription on the backside, I asked the young Chinese woman how much was this item I had in my hands. Now I definitely can't remember any figures but I believe she said something like $50 and I was just about to pay that when an old man hurredly came out from the back of the shop and in a somewhat angered voice said something in Chinese to the young Chinese woman who then immediately told me a price that was twice or three times higher than what she initially told me. I initially said no at this point because if I purchased this curious item, I would have no money left to buy the shirts I wanted. After walking a few steps away, I returned and begrudgingly paid the new asking price and left the mall with a cool looking Great Wall of China medal but no new shirts.

It's only been in very recent years that I began believing that precious metals like silver and gold are a good way to invest some of my money instead of continuing to dump money into my small and abismally devalued mutual funds investment. It was only at this time that I remembered that I have tucked away somewhere in a drawer something made of what appears to be silver. I found it and not knowing anything about coins/medals and their values, I used Noxon to polish this medal so that I can enjoy the look of a shiny medal instead of the tarnished one that I was looking at.

So, the first 2 pictures I link to here are of the medal I purchased back in the 1980's after I polished it a few years ago. The next 2 pictures are of the original wooden box it came in and the coin inside the box. These were taken today.

IMAGE 1

DIRECT LINK:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/...chinamedal.jpg

IMAGE 2

DIRECT LINK:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/...dalreverse.jpg

IMAGE 3

DIRECT LINK:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/...namedalbox.jpg

IMAGE 4

The thin yellow thing near the lower right of the medal is the yellow tab that sits under the coin which allows the coin to be lifted out of the molded base.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/...medalinbox.jpg

I have not seriously considered getting this medal authenticated / graded because I don't know who might authenticate / grade such an item and frankly, if I do send in a coin that may be rare or valuable to a grading company, how would I know that they don't switch mine with a replica or fake one?

My question to anyone who wants to chime in, is it possible or even likely that I have an authentic medal? I would be very surprised that I do because of the seemingly low price I paid and also I have never been so lucky to have stumbled across anything of real value. My guess is that I may have bought a replica (which is okay because when I purchased it I wasn't even thinking of any potential value...I bought it because it is beautiful). If it is a replica, then spending any of my hard earned money on grading would be money down the tube, yes?

Any feedback or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Source: http://www.goldismoney2.com/showthread.php?39754-China-The-Great-Wall-Silver-Medal&goto=newpost

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