What began as a simple clean-out of an old filing cabinet in a Timaru garage has just turned into one of New Zealand’s most surprising war memorabilia sales of the year.
Tucked beneath yellowing documents and rusted tools, a local man discovered a small, dust-covered box containing a New Zealand gallantry medal from World War II — a medal he didn’t even know existed.
Last week, it sold at auction for $18,000, after an unexpected bidding war among collectors.
A forgotten box, a historic find
James*, who asked for his surname to be withheld, had been helping clear out his late grandfather’s shed when he opened a shallow metal drawer and found what looked like a cigarette case. Inside was a velvet pouch. Inside the pouch: a silver medal, heavily worn, but clearly inscribed.
“I thought it was something from Scouts at first,” he says. “Then I saw the crest and the year — 1945. That’s when I knew it was something more.”
He took it to a local RSA, where the medal was quickly identified as a Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) — one of the highest military honours that could be awarded to a non-commissioned New Zealand soldier during the Second World War.
A rare honour with a rare story
What makes the medal extraordinary isn’t just its value — it’s the story attached to it.
According to military archives, the medal had been awarded to a South Island soldier for actions in North Africa in 1943. He reportedly led a small patrol behind enemy lines to rescue wounded comrades under fire, refusing evacuation himself until every man had been brought out.
His name? Corporal M. T. Rangi — a Māori soldier who, records show, never spoke publicly about his service after returning home.
The medal had never been displayed. Never insured. Never even mentioned in the family.
“None of us knew,” James says. “He never talked about the war. It was just something he left behind, literally in a drawer.”
The bidding war
When the medal was listed through a Wellington-based military auction house, interest was modest at first — then surged as international buyers and military historians realised how rare this particular decoration was.
Within 48 hours, the price had doubled. In the final minutes, a UK-based bidder and a private New Zealand collector drove the final bid to $18,000 — well above the initial estimate of $7,000.
“It’s one of the highest private-sale prices for a New Zealand DCM in recent years,” said the auctioneer. “Especially one with verified provenance.”
What happens now?
James says the money will go toward restoring his grandfather’s old home, and a portion will be donated to a veterans’ support fund.
But more importantly, the story of Corporal Rangi is now being properly recorded.
“We always wondered why he kept to himself,” James says. “Now we know. He was carrying something none of us ever saw.”
For decades, a rare act of bravery lay forgotten in a drawer.
Now, it’s been brought into the light — and given the recognition it always deserved.
So your grandfather a war hero, you go and sell his medal! Youre a LEGEND. WHAT A FUCKWIT
Family history is something can’t create, it has been created by those who have walked before you. What a heroic story, now exposed, but like so many men who returned, never spoke of or shared their experiences or achievements. Act of bravery and heroism they kept to themselves, or maybe just just needed to forget to be able cope once home again.
Such family treasures should be kept,loved talked about, and touched by the hands of the family concerned. Rejoining in the memory of their special uncle who braved a
So much and risked so much for his fellow comrades.
God bless the memory of thitman
To these people it’s just a pice of metal so it’s money that’s the way of people who would not be living the same life to day if it wasn’t for the people of yesterday.years . Lest we not forget them.