The Medal of Honor Ribbon

 
This page is intended to show various Ribbons that I have been able to get pictures/Scans of to show the variety of Medal of Honor Ribbons to help those who don't know, have not seen what real ones look like.
The pictures here came from many sources,
see for info-http://www.cmohs.org/medal-faq.php
It is illegal to buy, sell, barter, or manufacture any decorations or medals authorized by Congress for the United States armed forces. 

In General.— Whoever knowingly purchases, attempts to purchase, solicits for purchase, mails, ships, imports, exports, produces blank certificates of receipt for, manufactures, sells, attempts to sell, advertises for sale, trades, barters, or exchanges for anything of value any decoration or medal authorized by Congress for the armed forces of the United States, or any of the service medals or badges awarded to the members of such forces, or the ribbon, button, or rosette of any such badge, decoration or medal, or any colorable imitation thereof, except when authorized under regulations made pursuant to law, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
MIL-SPEC PAGE - 83G   IN PDF


weaved Stars in the Bar- the top is the one in current use, the Stars are 1 sided only
Regular Ribbon: The 1-3/8 inch (35.0 mm) regular bar ribbon shall be woven with 5 stars in a group. The groups shall be 1-1/4 inch (31.8 mm) apart (center to center) with a cutting mark centered between each group. The individual stars in the group shall measure 7/64 inch (2.8 mm) in diameter. The ribbon shall be arranged on the bar so that the stars form a letter "M" and 2 rays of each star point downward. The center star shall be centered on the ribbon width.

A Woven Ribbon, corded edges

Homemade Silk-Screen
Homemade Silk-Screen Ribbon, note the flatness of the ink/paint and how the covering is not complete. This is caused either by not enough pressure being applied as the ink is pushed thru the screen or not enough of the ink to fill in evenly. The ink sits on top of the material and due to the ridges may not fill in the lower areas of the ribbon as shown. Real Ribbon was never silk-screened .
From a fellow collector
1. RE: "Real ribbon was never silk-screened." - I don't know how you define "real" but here's a bit of info you need to know: In the early 70s,  I purchased a MoH ribbon bar in a Military Clothing Sales Store.  It was sealed in the original GEMSCO packaging and definitely official. The bar was the standard size and the stars were printed, not embroidered. BTW, the sale of this ribbon bar, and only this one, was conditional on my signing a form stating that it was for my personal use and not for resale.
  I was also told of a "Printed" one,
 It's an early, narrow version and plastic-covered, Printed is usually one sided.
My Comments
Will surprise's never end.
I was going off of mil-spec's,
MIL-DTL-11589-Spec/Std Sheet:  83 Revision E -15-SEP-1995 is the oldest sheet available on line.
Maybe it was made before mil-spec's or maybe GEMSCO made it that way as no one cared back then, the same as your printed one.
Thus made for the collector market???
So unless there is something printed up from official sources, it is up in the air as to what is "REAL" to me.
The same as the examples cited above, there is no one around who was part of the making process nor any data that I am aware of, so unless a book is written on the subject that cite all this that will last for some time for future folks to know, it is all up in the Air as to "What is Real" by Government standards, thus the "newer" on below right might have been accepted due to conditions at the time even though not mil-spec.

See this link for a Embroidered version-The Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum
https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/ribbon-medal-honor  11/01/2021 link not working
pictures attached in case link goes bad.






Various woven Types-left to right
Modern made Embroidered [ said to be a recent production version]- Early Navy Type-Early Army Type Shield Ribbon types, 29mm-28mm, and bar ribbon, 29mm
SHIELD RIBBON: The 2 inch (50.8 mm) shield ribbon shall be woven with 13 stars in a group. The groups shall be 3 inches (76.2 mm) apart centered on ribbon width with a cutting mark centered half way between each group. The stars shall be 5/32 inch (4.0 mm) in diameter and shall form a triple chevron of 5, 5, and 3 white stars at right angles to the warp direction of the ribbon
This is the center -Shield-part where the Medal hangs from, the neck portion is plain ribbon.
A mil-spec ribbon shows Stars on one side only.

Modern made Embroidered

High Resolution pictures to show thread woven in, Stars on one side only.






Examples of Embroidered Ribbons, non real





Homemade Silk-Screen and Embroidered Ribbons [ made up as a neck piece ]