Briton's campaign rescues 160 WW1 war medals from being melted for SCRAP: 'The sacrifice will be lost forever!'

He told the People's Channel: "There was one moment where I thought, this is actually happening now and we have to do something about this, because once they're gone, they're lost forever.

"To know that is the fate of these medals and all the memories, for each one we try and save a life. And even if we're not doing that, we're saving at least a memory."

As many as 6.5 million British War Medals could be at risk of being scrapped and melted as silver prices surge, climbing by 150 per cent over the past year.

The value of the medals is now significantly more when melted down than their market price as collectables, with each award containing more than 92 per cent silver and weighing 1.2 ounces.

Explaining how much a single medal could now be worth, Mr Nuwar told GB News the medals are "only 7.5 per cent less than the fine silver".

He said: "You'd be talking about somewhere in the range of between £40 and £45, that's just for a single medal.

"But sadly, because there was so many issued, the medallic value isn't there and the great rarity behind it."

Mr Nuwar argued that for him, the medals and what they signify "ought to be worth more medalically" than being melted down for scrap.

He said: "I just think the endeavour that's gone behind it, the sacrifice, the age of the medal and what it signifies, you think of the good old British Tommy. For me, that ought to be worth more medallically.

"And we're kind of committing to say, well, whatever the silver price, if that underpins the value of its historical value, we're happy to do this and show them, to tell their stories, to research them. And they ought to be worth a lot more than that, in our view."

Having rescued 160 medals so far, the military antiques dealer hopes to find more and "keep alive the collecting value of these medals".

He told GB News: "We're only at about 160 at the moment, but it's early days and hopefully this helps. But a young lad came in with his father and he collected 70 of that 160 himself, and he came in and it was marvellous to see.

"For someone his age, the incentive to sell to a scrap dealer would have been quite great, but he couldn't face it and he said that's definitely not going to happen to my collection that I collected since I was a boy.

"And he was happy that we will keep alive the collecting value of those medals."

Asked by Andrew what he plans to do with the rescued medals, Mr Nuwar said he has already began displaying the medals to further "educate people about the poignancy, historical importance and the sacrifice" of those who fought in WW1.

He said: "We will just do what we normally do, which is to tell the stories, to appeal to people, to tell people about the poignancy, the historical importance and the sacrifice.

"And that's how we market things, it will always be above that level of barbarity and destruction, which we are definitely experiencing at the moment."