Jah-Jim

Please let me know if you develop an interest in the beautiful and historic medals, orders and insignia of Royal Ethiopia. Seasons greetings to all! Jah Jim Rastafarilives@gmail.com

Yes, it's a great medal group and bar. I agree that it may well have belonged to a member of Gideon Force. Were the two stars named on the back? If so, it should be researchable. The second medal, the Emperor in Exile medal, also known as the Refugee's Medal is the version made in Ethiopia, and not the British made version. You can tell because of the ribbon bars on his uniform. Thanks and blessings! Jah-Jim

Unfortunately sometimes the only long term way to get the answer is to have a baby, raise it to be interested in medals and such, and then get it hired to work at the company whose history or statistics you want to know more about, and then hope nature takes it's course.

No, Kim, I don't. I know they made a variety of items for Royal Ethiopia, but have no list available. Is the company still in existence, and can you ask them for us? I'm under the impression they probably made more insignia for Ethiopia than medals, and no orders that I know of. Ulsterman, I look forward to more research on that Menelik, just because it's such a far cry from the normal enamelled and gorgeous two sided Meneliks AND because I have seen one like it before, leading me to believe it either was official (and all other dealers and authors have missed it) or it's another in a series of items, mules for lack of a better term, made up after the regime, by people who found original dies and/or half made badges and added to it to make something saleable from something formerly not. I have found insignia, medals and other items of the sort that have that exact background, but in any case, I'm curious and now want to know more. Blessings!

I do have The Ethiopian Patriots, Forgotten Voices of the Italo-Ethiopian War 1935-1941 by Andrew Hilton Foreward by W. F. Deedes. Good book published in 2007.

Actually what I meant to infer that it was unlikely to have both the white ribbon medal and the blue ribbon medal with five bars on each awarded officially to the same person. Indeed many had the red and white awarded, and some had all three such as the Emperor wore. Which book and author are you referring to? I may have it, but if I don't, naturally I want it. I'm approaching 1100 books on Ethiopia in English, plus the foreign language ones, plus the periodicals and booklets. I note in the second group the red ribbon had 1 palm for years of fighting and the blue four for years of exile, perfectly appropriate. Hopefully all five denote different years. Also many vets (and more sellers!) enhanced their awards after the fact, adding palm leaves willy nilly, even on many medals and orders that never had them to begin with.

Greetings all, and Ulsterman, Is the third medal stamped on the bottom edge signifying it was made in Sweden by Sporrong & Co? That's the nicer of the two versions. A little less weight but higher quality silver and cleaner design execution. The first order on the left seems to be a variation on the Order of Menelik, "possibly" made after Haile Selassie I's reign. I've also heard of it being an "NCO Version" but I have no confirmation of either possibility presently. As you can see, I LOVE these things! Jah Jim

I just received one in the mail today, and made an interesting discovery. Where this one didn't have the bluish backing piece of aluminum behind the cockade on the outside of the helmet, I looked inside, and sure enough, it WAS THERE! I relocated it to the outside, underneath the cockade. Please check your pith helmets, and if you don't have the backing piece on the outside, please look inside and let me know? Thanks!

Yes, the cockade is on the right side on all four of mine also. I sell both the cockade, back piece and helmets when available. The cockade is normally backed with the bluish aluminum plaque as shown at the top, and the ones below probably had the cockades added later because the plaques don't just fall off, leaving the cockade. All Imperial Guard helmets should have the gold insignia stamped inside on the leather head piece. One is usually available from, so get in touch if interested. The ribbon displayed on the helmet above is the ribbon for the Order of Chivalry known as the Order of Menelik II, most unusual used this way, but then it IS on a British polo helmet and not apparently associated with the Imperial Guard. Perhaps the helmet belonged to one of those serving with Wingate and his Gideon Force, 1940-May, 1941 and participated in the Emperor's triumphant entry into Addis Ababa on May 5th, 1941.

The Emperor In Exile Medal, the one on the left, was made in England by Mappin and Webb. We know that because the Ethiopian-made version of it had Emperor Haile Selassie I wearing ribbon bars on his jacket as opposed to none on the British made version. Yes, the calender is off by 7 years, 8 months, EARLIER so they celebrated Y2K in 2007. By the way, 9-11 is their New Years so HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL ETHIOPIANS and those that love them. When buying these medals with bars, please take a magnifying glass with you as you won't be able to see, much less make out the writing on them otherwise. The point being, if you get and pay for one with five bars, you want five DIFFERENT dates on them. The one above with three has the last three years of hostilities of that war, so any others should represent 1935, 1936 and 1937 by reading 1928, 1929 and 1930 in Amharic. What you want to avoid is medals with the same date on two o more bars, because that can ONLY tell you someone added the bar afterwards, not knowing the rules and in hopes of getting more for the "enhanced" medal. That's VERY common in Ethiopia, and not unheard of in medal collecting in general. NONE have names of the Emperor's Children on them, lol., but now I've heard everything so thanks for that. Lastly, the two top medals are unlikely to belong to the same person, because the blue ribbon one was specifically given to those who had to LEAVE while the red ribbon one and especially the White Ribbon Underground Patriot medals were awarded to those who stayed and fought throughout the occupation of the Italians. and as you see, it's difficult to be both in exile and in the country still fighting at the same time. I'm glad to have helped, and as you can tell, I love the subject. Jim

No, just Dutch + French medals to those who helped free Ethiopia in 1941.

Rastafari is now Jah-Jim up here. I've never seen a chocolate colored victory star so I'm sorry you didn't shoot it "up close and personal" before you headed for the airport. Was the writing on both sides, or was it uniface? I have one smaller than full sized uniface one, and know where another is if need be. Lastly, even though it's illegal to export such items from Ethiopia since october, 2005, I understand the Ethiopian office DHL has ways of reliably avoiding customs entirely, but if you use them, please offer me something, lol. jah-jim@mindspring is one of my emails. There are very accurate copies of the Victory Star for sale in Ethiopia with a loop for wearing, none of them actual medals, so you have to be careful about that. There are two versions of the Victory Star, both in nickel, one with the bottom two points of the Trinity poking out quite a bit more than the other (thus my name, the Pointy version) and the other third version is the true Silver Victory Medal made by Mappin and Webb in England.

As I say in my ebay auctions under the same name, Jah-Jim, "Due to a new export regulation that came into effect in October, 2005, the export of all Haile Selassie items from Ethiopia is prohibited for the reason that all Haile Selassie era items were severely depleted and local collectors successfully lobbied the government to ban the export of these items."

Greetings, I am glad to talk to any of you about any Royal Ethiopian items at any time. I'm blessed to have a very large collection and archive on the subject. The green one at the top is definitely the CIB for the members of Haile Selassie I's Imperial Guard that served in the Korean War. They were the only contingent fighting on either side of that war that didn't lose any wounded or dead personnel to the opposing troops. The two below with the Lion on them are later issue, for fighting insurgents when Eritrea wanted to be independent again, circa 1960-1962, maker marked by Haile Selassie I's Armenian jeweller and goldsmith in Addis Ababa. Please be in direct touch if and when you have more Ethiopian questions or items available. Jah-Jim@mindspring.com should work for you.