victoria cross

[welshwil]

what will happen when all the metal from the cannon that provides the metal for the cross runs out?

[buildersmate]

It won't for a very long time (>100 years), unless the rate of awarding VCs goes up a lot. There's a stock of the stuff held someone in an MOD store.

[johnizere]

there's a bit of a dispute about the metal used for the medals, it was historically said that they are made from cannons captured from the Russians at Sebastopol. However, it is possible that the medals are made from other metals, such as ex-Chinese cannons! Read this....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A665192

[johnizere]

The metal from which all VCs are now made - made, in fact, by the same firm, Hancocks of London - is kept at the Ordnance Depot at Donnington. It is all that remains after over 1300 awards of the cascabels2 of the original two cannon. The barrels of the cannon stand outside the Officers' Mess at Woolwich. Enough metal remains for around 85 more medals.

The above is quoted from the first link I put, so now I'm more confused!

[jno]

they dished them out freely when the order was first introduced - 24 in a day at the relief of Lucknow, 11 at Rorke's Drift - but they're very rare now; partly I suppose because we don't spend quite so much time at war, despite Blair's best efforts, and partly because I think they've tightened the door policy a lot.

[jno]

...from Wikipedia:

Since the end of the Second World War the VC has been awarded only 12 times. Four were awarded during the Korean War, one in the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation in 1965, four to Australians in the Vietnam War, two during the Falklands War in 1982, and one in the Second Gulf War in 2004.

... so that's one in the last 24 years.

[NH]

OMG!!! We'll all DIE!!! F****** HELL!!!

[Scylax]

Not to worry; the VC is all but obsolete, soon to be
replaced by the BC (Blair Cross), made from a modern
gun which will not shoot the ammunition supplied.