What is this prop?

[GSchnitzer]

In another thread concerning This Side of Paradise, a image of the medal that Kirk was looking at in the episode was shown (Timo found it). I was wondering where the medal came from. The props department could have made it, either for Star Trek, or for another production and then reused it for Star Trek. Or it could be a real world medal from somewhere.

On close-up, it pretty nice looking, with a raised figurine, holding a disc or hoop. Anybody know?
Also, any idea which of Kirk's many medal is this supposed to represent?

It might or might not be the "medal of honor" that Kirk is described in "Court Martial" as having received.

It's odd that the medal that Spock and McCoy pull out of Kirk's "safe" in "The Tholian Web" ("he was a heron in every sense of the word") is not the same medal:

 

[Christopher]

^Not that odd. I doubt they kept careful track of whether they'd used a specific medal prop before; they just grabbed what was handy from the studio prop room that week. It's not like they anticipated the existence of home video and computer screencaps, or a fanbase devoted enough to bother to notice such trivial details.

 

[sojourner]

"he was a heron in every sense of the word"

Yes, he was quite the odd bird.

 

[Maestro]

It looks like a cheap-o medal from NEFF that is given out to high school students who run really, really fast for the Track 'n' Field Team.

 

[TIN_MAN]

It could be be the same Medal/prop, just showing the reverse side (assuming it had one), notice the ribbon is is reversed also?

 

[Christopher]

But the second ribbon has a lot more folds in it. And the bit that connects the ribbons to the medal seems different. Anyway, why have different, generic designs on both sides of a medal?

 

[TIN_MAN]

Yeah, I noticed the slight difference in ribbons after I posted. Besides, I'm sure Kirk has lots of medals for different achievements.

 

[Captain Rob]

Wouldn't one of those medals be for Kirk having the Human record for scoring the most alien tail?

 

[Maurice]

It could be be the same Medal/prop, just showing the reverse side (assuming it had one), notice the ribbon is is reversed also?

Um. One is gold, the other is silver.

 

[Christopher]

I thought the first one looked gold too, and that the difference was simply due to the lighting and color saturation in the two screencaps. But looking more closely, I'm not so sure. I can't really tell which it is. Although of course they're still different medals either way.

 

[TIN_MAN]

It could be be the same Medal/prop, just showing the reverse side (assuming it had one), notice the ribbon is is reversed also?

Um. One is gold, the other is silver.

On my computer they both look gold, though one does seem slightly lighter than the other, but that could just be the lighting?