Polished Mini-medallions

[Jaybird180]

Is polishing the medallion verboten?

Having recently received an award that I am considering mounting alongside my military awards for wear on the Mess Dress, I'm considering options:
1- Go with standard finish on all medallions
2- Polish the CAP medallion (or have it custom finished for longevity)

[HandsomeWalt_USMC]

I never had miniatures of my decs prior to CAP so mine are all standard finish. I don't know how well they'd take to polishing, but I'm curious. Always preferred anodized/high polish medals.

It's not specifically authorized in the 39-1, so it is by the letter unauthorized as 39-1 is not a permissive document. If they're all the same finish, is someone going to hammer you for it? Probably not. The residual barracks lawyer in me says do it. Ya know, for science. 

[baronet68]

Time to break out the rattle can! 

[MHC5096]

I wouldn't be too worried about having a mix of finishes. While almost all CAP mini-medals have a matte finish, for some unknown reason the Distinguished Service and Commander's Commendation awards only come in a highly polished version.

[NIN]

Not quite the same thing, but many, many years ago there was a chrome shop in my hometown that had been recommended to my CAP buddy and me by a fellow in the Air Guard. The AF had just moved to "bright chrome" insignia, and CAP had yet to follow suit precisely, but we wanted our stuff to look sharp. 

We each brought over a piece of cardboard our insignia pinned on: flight cap devices, CAP cutouts (yes, it was that long ago), and miscellaneous other insignia like ground team and flying badges. I even had my Army aircrew wings and some other stuff chromed because the Army was just going to bright insignia from anodized at that point. My buddy was an Air Guard cop, so he had his badge chromed.

We were worried we were going to get an awful "bumper chrome" job.  Our fears were unfounded. These guys did a super, super finely detailed, very delicate chrome job that lost none of the detail on the insignia.

That was circa 1990, I still have those cutouts and still wear that flight cap device and those aircrew wings to this day.

If you can find a place that won't do "bumper chrome" (to cars even have bumpers these days? LOL) locally, you can pull all the planchets and have them chromed.

[Slim]

Not quite the same thing, but many, many years ago there was a chrome shop in my hometown that had been recommended to my CAP buddy and me by a fellow in the Air Guard. The AF had just moved to "bright chrome" insignia, and CAP had yet to follow suit precisely, but we wanted our stuff to look sharp. 

We each brought over a piece of cardboard our insignia pinned on: flight cap devices, CAP cutouts (yes, it was that long ago), and miscellaneous other insignia like ground team and flying badges. I even had my Army aircrew wings and some other stuff chromed because the Army was just going to bright insignia from anodized at that point. My buddy was an Air Guard cop, so he had his badge chromed.

We were worried we were going to get an awful "bumper chrome" job.  Our fears were unfounded. These guys did a super, super finely detailed, very delicate chrome job that lost none of the detail on the insignia.

That was circa 1990, I still have those cutouts and still wear that flight cap device and those aircrew wings to this day.

If you can find a place that won't do "bumper chrome" (to cars even have bumpers these days? LOL) locally, you can pull all the planchets and have them chromed.

Same.  I'm still wearing the observer wings I had done with you guys.  The device is still pinned to my flight cap in my dresser drawer, and all the other stuff I had done is still preserved in a cotton filled box in my insignia kit.

[NIN]

Same.  I'm still wearing the observer wings I had done with you guys.  The device is still pinned to my flight cap in my dresser drawer, and all the other stuff I had done is still preserved in a cotton filled box in my insignia kit.

Ohhh, I completely forgot we did your insignia, too, Slim.

I thought I lost that flight cap device when I was retired. I was heartbroken until I found it.