Polish neck ribbon

[Guy]

Who can help me ?

 

What's the difference between these 2 neck ribbons.

Both are a member of the Polish Order of the Restituta.

One ribbon in red with white.
The other one is more orange with white.

I have also seen these ribbons on  the same medals on various sales sites.
But there is no mention of the difference.

Thanks

 

 

 

 

Edited May 12, 2017 by Guy

[ilieff]

That's what happens when people wash their ribbons along with the white laundry.

On the serious side, there are a number of reasons why the colours might differ from ribbon to ribbon:

1) Ribbons do lose their colour with time, especially if kept in not very suitable places. Thus, a red ribbon might look orange afrer just a coulple of decades.

2) Different makers used different suppliers of ribbons and often they varied in their colour/tint. Numerous examples throughout Europe.

3) Poor materials used - e.g. during wartime years, the materials used tend to be of a lower quality (being cheaper), hence the colouring could fade away more quickly, compared to other examples.

4) Etc. etc.

 

I am not an expert in foreign decorations, but my suspicion is that the top ribbon on the above image is a replacement/copy ribbon actually, while the 'organge' one appears to be a  genuine one. Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[new world]

I second what ilieff said - top ribbon looks like a modern replacement.

[Guy]

Thank you Gentlemen for the possible explanation.

Is it possible that color discolouration, both the front and the back, the entire ribbon and even the loops to match have the same color ? Even between the I see  no discolouration.

My question is no whether this original ribbons are. My question is only meant to know the difference between both colors.

Even in large auction houses, I see the difference in ribbon coming back.

[Aahauge]

The order you link, Polonia Restituta, came with at least 4 different ribbons during PRL (Communist Poland). The design stays the same, but the fabric and the exact colouring differs - hence it's possible to detect if the medal variation matches the ribbon variation. I think the same rules apply to 2nd Republic issues.

I think that your "upper" ribbon is 3rd Republic (1990 - ) and the lower ribbon is late PRL (1980s). So your upper medal should have a crowned eagle and 1918 on reverse, and the lower medal should have an uncrowned eagle and 1944 on reverse.

Best regards Aahauge