Hungary Hungarian Sports Badge (Cased):

[Hauptmann]

Here's a little ditty I picked up off Ebay back in April of 2005 for a mere $17.50. It was mislisted as a "Vintage Russian (?) Medal with Red Star - In Box".

And again, many apologies for the poor photo quality... I'm stuck with a digital camera with macro feature until I can afford a scanner.

What caught my eye was the case (I'm a sucker for cases) as in my current experiences with Soviet bloc awards most tend to have come in either cardboard boxes, cheap plastic cases or in fairly decent looking cases but with no base on the inside on which to rest the medal. Either that or it has a base but it's made of thin, cheap plastic perhaps with a thin coat of cheap flocking.

However, the key word with this award is not cheap but quality.

The case on this one (again at least to me) screams old world craftsmanship. It's heavy, solid and well made. That and the look of the "badge" and the fact that it's silver seemed to indicate 1950's vintage since most of the more recent communist pins and badges I've seen tend to be in aluminum or some other cheap metal if not in plastic.

[Hauptmann]

It also seemed to have a fairly low serial number - E108.

I did a bit of research and managed to discover the following:

After several name changes the MHS name was used for the Hungarian Sports Federation For Defense. That name was used from 17 August 1957 up till 08 August 1967.

The other wording on the badge: Kivalo Munkaert (trust me, it's what it says) stands for Outstanding Manpower (or Labor).

I could not resist... I bid and luckily won. I've never regretted it since. It's a small badge but well made and the case is as nice as I imagined it would be. Plus I've never seen another set like it.

I've been wondering if this was the standard of quality for such small, humble awards at that time or if perhaps this was made up for some party bigwig or one of his/her children?

Again if anyone has any further information on this piece I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks,

Dan

[Hauptmann]

Hi all,

Now that I have my scanner I decided that this was one of a select few pieces I wanted to do new pics of. So here they are, new and improved.

Outside of case:

[attachmentid=55721]

Inside of case:

[attachmentid=55722]

Badge obverse:

[attachmentid=55723]

[Hauptmann]

Badge reverse:

[attachmentid=55724]

Closeup of the serial number. I've never seen those dot like impressions on an engraving or stamping before:

[attachmentid=55725]

Anyhow I hope these finally are able to start to do justice to this set. I've still never seen another one like it and would love to know more.

Dan

[Bryan]

Wow very nice badge!

[Hauptmann]

Wow very nice badge!

Mucho thanks! I've never regretted buying it. Wasn't much either... I think about $5 or $7 dollars if I remember correctly. Just couldn't pass it up. The seller had it misidentified and somehow it fell through the cracks... needless to say I'm very glad it did.

Just hope I'm able to learn more about it someday.

Dan

[hunyadi]

Hello - first post - here goes -

This is a very rare variant of the Excellent Workers Badge (over 300 variants from 1949-1991) This is an early 1949 to possibly 1952 excelent workers badge given to individulas who worked for the Hungarian Military Sports organization. Could have been a manager, coach, program director, etc... What makes this even more unique is the letter and number combination. This was the first method of numbering Hungarian badges, but was quickly phased out by 1950 as it was deemed just too complex of a system. By 1954 almost all forms of Workers Badges were awarded without serial numbers. The case is of interest as it is a later verison 1952-55 era. You an tell this by the patterned paper bottom scuff pad. This is seen oncases until 1956 - after just plain red leatherette or for some workers badges - just bare white cardboard. This type of case is not however unique to the badge as several sport related badges followed the recessed pattern. It is probable that the badge was made in 1949 or early 1950; sat in the warehouse and then was later matched up with the case and then awarded in the mid 1950's. Unfortunatly - there is little resources to research the badge as records of such are long lost and in all probability the badge was awarded with a document that had a serial number that had nothing to do with the badge.

However you can tell that this is early quality as the enamel is near WW2 standards.

Had I said its rare - its probably one of only a handful that are not in a Hungarian landfill.

Regards

CD

[Hauptmann]

Hello - first post - here goes -

This is a very rare variant of the Excellent Workers Badge (over 300 variants from 1949-1991) This is an early 1949 to possibly 1952 excelent workers badge given to individulas who worked for the Hungarian Military Sports organization. Could have been a manager, coach, program director, etc... What makes this even more unique is the letter and number combination. This was the first method of numbering Hungarian badges, but was quickly phased out by 1950 as it was deemed just too complex of a system. By 1954 almost all forms of Workers Badges were awarded without serial numbers. The case is of interest as it is a later verison 1952-55 era. You an tell this by the patterned paper bottom scuff pad. This is seen oncases until 1956 - after just plain red leatherette or for some workers badges - just bare white cardboard. This type of case is not however unique to the badge as several sport related badges followed the recessed pattern. It is probable that the badge was made in 1949 or early 1950; sat in the warehouse and then was later matched up with the case and then awarded in the mid 1950's. Unfortunatly - there is little resources to research the badge as records of such are long lost and in all probability the badge was awarded with a document that had a serial number that had nothing to do with the badge.

However you can tell that this is early quality as the enamel is near WW2 standards.

Had I said its rare - its probably one of only a handful that are not in a Hungarian landfill.

Regards

CD

Hi Charles,

I deeply appreciate your help on this and all this great additional info. Looks like I really lucked out on this one.

Thanks so much!

Dan

[Gerd Becker]

Charles, welcome to the forum

Thats a really nice badge, Dan. Looks, like you started with the rarest version, congrats

[Ulsterman]

Welcome Hunyadi!

[Ed_Haynes]

Welcome Hunyadi -- we need your expertise!!

[Hauptmann]

Charles, welcome to the forum

Thats a really nice badge, Dan. Looks, like you started with the rarest version, congrats

Hi Gerd,

Many thanks for the compliment. Sure is nice to start at the top for a change and then worry about the common stuff! It always seems to be the other way round.

Dan