So here is what I threw together from some surplus pallets I had hanging around I tore apart. Looks kind of cluttered I apologize, and the wallpaper is kind of busy too. I set out to make a shelf to hold race plaques and items, and hang medals from, but allow medals to lay flat and be adjustable position left/right and up/down. I think this works well, for medals that the ribbon comes out flat...
The board at the base is spaced from the back piece to form a slot where the ribbons are fed up through, then I cut several small wedges out of scrap wood and the wedge gets pressed down through the ribbon in the slot to hold it wherever I want.
The front piece is on hinges and opens to set everything in place inside. The hinges and hasp are about the only thing I had to buy at the hardware store, I didn't have anything that small. Also in the small gap at the hinged joint I hung my 1st and 3rd place medals in front of there corresponding finishers medals - well I shifted things slightly so they aren't perfect but were for two of the 18.12 Challenge races that I placed in. All others I placed in I got plaques which are on top (plus one more coming in the mail soon!). I also used the gap at the top of the front panel to attach the small medals from my hometown 5k I do most years, I had a lot of them so thought I'd put them all together. Then I carried on the red white and blue theme and added a few other medals that also had R,W&B ribbons to the front. These are just thumb-tacked to the inside of the board. All the pint glasses and coffee mugs on top were given at races in lieu of medals.
I also have a separate board with nails for the medals where the ribbon forms more of a 'V' and want to hang more naturally in that orientation, but you can't see the ribbons that well (most of those ones are plain anyhow). I got the medals to lay mostly flat by running a strip of scotch tape across the backs of them.
The main rack is the width of the pallet, I think it was around 3 1/2 feet. I have room for about 3 more medals. I was debating on painting it, but after lightly sanding I think I'll just leave it raw finish. Plus I don't want to tear all that back down!
As far as which one I think is coolest? Well since I am a big fan of the Marvel movies and Thor is a favorite, the medal from my Viking Dash 5k which is Thor's hammer Mjolnir is one of my favorites. And it's not just flat like a medal its actually made very thick, with nice details and inscriptions.