Carol I

From the Newsletter of the State Numismatic Portal named in another thread:

Thanks a lot for your opinion, Tomas.

Thak you for the reply as well as the link to the coming Dorotheum auction!

Thank you very much for the detailed reply (here, as well as in the other thread).

Thanks, Zaim, but I was referring to other than Albanian orders. The table of content indicates no less than 58 pages (pp 133-190) of inventory, with the star of the Order of the German Eagle on page 183. What other rare ODMs are included?

It looks like an image rich catalogue. What other ODMs does it contain? Is it available on paper or as an eBook (ePub or pdf)? Thanks.

Two similar items on which I would like to hear your opinion: Franz Josef Order Red Cross Badge Thank you in advance.

Can you please let me know your opinion on the badges below? Thank you in advance.

The "Podu mogosoe" address in Bucharest is "Podul Mogoșoaiei", the main thoroughfare of the city at that time, hosting among others the Royal Palace. It was named "Calea Victoriei" on 12 October 1878, honouring the Romanian victory in the Independence War of 1877–1878. The address of the house and shop was Calea Victoriei 52. Here is a link to the history of the place: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Passage ... and the house on Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/@44.4364826,26.097865,3a,75y,39.75h,103.54t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sPDVYem1jhoUN265UM_aq2w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu

In this old thread there is a photo of a medal bar with a similar knight's cross, albeit on Military Virtue ribbon:

His last name is Popa, which is a rather common name and hence difficult to stand out, unless the British, Serbian/Yugoslavian and Russian awards will help.

Older regulations mentioned that wartime decorations should be in front of peacetime ones, hence the Order of the Crown with swords should have been in front of the military Order of the Star. Also, many WWI awards with swords were on the Military Virtue ribbon. However there are bars where these rules was not respected, including some at the National Military Museum.

Hi Johan. There does not seem to be any more information on Zamfir Calinescu popping up on a web search. You may check with the Embassy of Romania in Helsinki whether there are records of him with the diplomatic mission of the 1940s.

My modest contribution, a Schwerdtner case with "eaves" (as mentioned by new world):

Nice piece, congrats!

I am glad you liked the images. I remember some more mixups than the wrong ribbon of the Order of the Nile, but in the end I liked that the orders survived through the ups and downs of history.

Here are some images of these pieces, on display in a temporary exhibition many years ago:

I came by chance upon the photo of this group showing the awards of a reserve officer that has fought on both fronts. It illustrates a possible combination of WWII and post-WWI awards, but of course it is difficult to extrapolate it to all WWII veterans. Source

I wonder whether these are his decorations (the lot was sold a couple of years ago in Germany, but the name of the awardee was not disclosed at the request of the family). It will add the Order of the Crown of Romania and the Order of Roman Eagle to the list of WWII awards.

Great, thanks a lot! Cheers!

Is this piece OK or an example of 'dark margins'-fake?

The King of Sweden was on a visit to Romania between 3(15) and 5(17) April 1885 on his way back from Constantinople. The visit was described by the Official Gazette of 6(18) April 1885.

I remembered two other generals that should be mentioned in relation to Eastern front activities, both receiving for those activities the Order of Michael the Brave with Swords 3rd class after the Order of Michael the Brave 2nd class on the Eastern front, General Avramescu who was most likely assassinated by the Soviets and General Dumitrache who survived many years after the war. The complexity of the topic increases if we take into account the members of the Soviet Tudor Vladimirescu Division that fared somewhat better in post-war years, including its high ranking officers. They probably received more or higher ranking Soviet decorations. Regarding Soviet decorations awarded to Romanian officers, some names are mentioned in the following topic on a related forum.

Dicezare fought on the Eastern Front with Grupul 1 Vanatoare. Another example is Ion Dobran (1919-2021) who fought on both fronts, was dismissed from the army in the 1950s and could work as a pilot only in the 1960s. The photo below shows him with his WWII awards (including one replacement decoration), as well as a modern one. Several other decorations are on his ribbon bar. Another flyer that had a somewhat smoother career was B. Ferderber, the navigator of YR-IMB when he used his WWII knowledge and who was apparently decorated for that incident. Changing the branch, please look at the life of General N. Dascalescu, who fought on both fronts, was dismissed from the army, thrown into jail, released (apparently at the intervention of Czechoslovakian communist authorities) and eventually reinstated in the rank and pension. Some anecdotal evidence mentions that he was allowed to wear an uniform and the decorations he received on the Western front, but he refrained any further collaboration with the Romanian authorities at that time.

You have brought up a very difficult topic, for the veterans, for the authorities and for the historians, one in which the context influenced very much the treatment of people, events and awards. Between 1944 and 1947, awards were made with the national system of orders irrespective of whether the awardee had or had not been on the Eastern front. Some officers received higher classes of the orders for Western front activities after those received for Eastern front activities. In fact there were also cases when Eastern front participants received awards for activities on the Eastern front after the Soviets became the allies. The only notable difference was the Order of Michael the Brave being replaced by the Order of Michael the Brave with Swords (speculations were that this was done at the pressure of the Soviets who were suspicious of the awards made to high German officers). Old awards could be worn, but it was war followed by troubled years and events were rather few. The Soviet-backed Communist takeover in Romania intended to create a rift with "the old regime" after 1947. The proclamation of the republic also brought an annulment of the national system of orders. New decorations were created to reward the loyality to the new regime. Wearing the old decorations was banned and there was a program for exchanging old decorations with new ones (however I do not have details). This had limited effect as the armed forces were gradually purged of old members who in many cases also faced many years of repression. The authorities recognised/celebrated only Western front veterans (mostly low ranks) as WWII veterans. Few of the veterans received Czechoslovakian and probably Soviet awards (again I do not have details). Only the beginning of the 1990s brought a more balanced treatment and a recognition of the awardees of old royal orders. The WWII Commemorative Cross was issued in mid-1990s to the few WWII survivors and replacement insignia for WWII-awards were also made/circulated. Old surviving decorations were taken out of drawers and dusted out for public events, but after 50+ years the numbers of the awardees was extremely low. Nevertheless, new and old awards were once again mixed on new uniforms: General Ioan Dicezare (1916-2012) - Source: Agerpres