Jump to content
News Ticker
  • I am now accepting the following payment methods: Card Payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal
  • Latest News

    Merit Medal of the Republic: Its Origin and Classes


    JapanX

    Recommended Posts

    Let’s have a little talk about this mysterious “Merit Medal”.

    This so-called Chinese Republic Merit Medal which is also known as

    Merit Medal of the Republic

    Silver Merit Medal of the Republic

    Medal for Military Merit

    Original inscription on the medal obverse (this could be translated as “Medal of the Republic of China”)

    Edited by JapanX
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Most likely this medal was created on April 9, 1913 in four classes. At least according to the only (?) published source about this decoration – “Orden aus aller Welt Sammlung Tammann 80. Auktion Katalog, 4-5 November 2008, p.178”. In turn compilers of this catalogue used “The China Year Book, Chicago 1916”, “The China Year Book, Chicago 1920” and “Who’s Who in China, 3rd edition, Shanghai, 1925”. Since this medal wasn’t listed in “The China Year Book of 1920” they concluded that: “It seems that it was distributed after that year by only Sun Yat-sen’s Government in Canton. The maker’s name and the date are indeed typical for decorations by the Canton Government”. There, that’s all we have.

    Now let’s take a look at different classes and variations of this interesting medal. Since we don’t have any precise information about design of different classes of this medal I think it will be a good idea to avoid naïve (and possibly incorrect) labeling. That’s why instead of class I will use the word variation.

    Edited by JapanX
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Marked specimen on the left was described in Tammann 2008 catalogue as

    “2nd class” and catalogue creators stated that “2nd class was for lower officers”….

    Edited by JapanX
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    • 2 weeks later...

    Variation A seems to be Japanese influenced. The flower is typical design for the Japanese way of drawing out the cherry blossom. The plum blossom would be fully rounded petals.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    • 2 months later...
    • 2 months later...

    Create an account or sign in to comment

    You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

    Create an account

    Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

    Register a new account

    Sign in

    Already have an account? Sign in here.

    Sign In Now
    ×
    ×
    • Create New...

    Important Information

    We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.