Just as an example, the museum spends a lot of time when offers of donation come in to get the story of all the individuals who are connected to anything from just regular service medals to higher awards, to Military Crosses or Victoria Crosses. Getting the provenance of the piece is very important, regardless of what the medal is, and all of this is maintained by the museum and entered into the database.
We accept all Canadian medals when offered and take the time to make sure we get all the information we require to maintain the stories of the individuals, because, as you've said, a lot of those medals are not the more highly valued ones, the greater awards. They are from ordinary people.
For example, the museum just recently acquired two common service medal sets from two brothers from Alberta. The two brothers joined up. There were four brothers in total. Two ended up in the same regiment and, on the exact same day, both brothers were killed. So this was a very important and interesting story to maintain and to tell.
We actually acquired those and are doing the research on them, but at the end of the day, those are just two common service medals awarded to two brothers who died. We spend just as much time researching the smaller awards, the lower awards, as we do the Victoria Crosses.