Gordon Williamson

Order of the Star of Romania. Although the Class shown here is "Knight", this is the lowest grade of the Order, the highest being Grand Cross, then down through

First Class, Grand Officer, Commander, Officer then Knight. Still an impressive award though.

Bulgaria Military Gallantry Order, 4th Class, 2nd Grade

A couple of nice cased pieces gifted to me by Hein Springer, Knight's CRoss winner from the Leibstandarte. Considerable numbers of LAH officers can be seen wearing Bulgarian orders in wartime photos.

Last one

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For anyone interested in the RAD, here are some photos from the album of a U-Boat officer who had served in the old FAD then the RAD.

In no particular order.

Original obverse date. Again the "3" shows the most distinct differences. to the one in the thread.

Original reverse date. Distinctly different "3" to the one in the thread.

The original Junker "eye" for the suspension loop also has a distinctive shape.

Unfortunately, this doesn't look like an original Juncker Lazy 2. The "trademark" of the Juncker cross is the "cross-hatch" to the beading lines on the inner corners next to the swastika.

Compare with this original.

The 1870s I have had which I believe to have been of that period were generally fractionally smaller than those which I was confident were of later manufacture (1870s were still being made during the 3rd Reich period). Somewhere between 42-43mm being typical for "original" 1870s, with 43-44mm for later made pieces, but I wouldn't be too prescriptive on this, other features are more "telling" than simply the size.

Rick will know his Imperial EKs much better than me.

Those pictures taken from aboard are enough to turn me to KM collecting!

There's hope for you yet Marshall !

Incidentally, notice he is holding the preliminary certificate for the award. A very rare piece of kit !!!

Ernst Willhelm Sch?tte on the other hand, a civilian fishing boat captain, was awarded the RK with Swords for his contribution to the fishing industry. Not knocking his award, helping to feed the nation during war is very important, but with Swords ?

Gets even more confusing with the RKs. Lothar Kreutz, though he wore the KVK1 with Swords as you'd expect with a serving uniformed member of the military, got the RK without Swords.

More difficult to see where a middle aged female like this would have earned a "with"

Rick,

I'd agree with you re military personnel. It would be unusual - but not unknown - to see them getting a KVK without Swords.

I think the lines were much fuzzier between "with" and "without" for civvies though.

For uniformed auxiliaries as here, no real surprise that a "with" was presented. They may have been serving in an area where enemy attack was likely and could have come under fire.

Reverse

Obverse

It could be that the flat polished outer flange was itself painted with an acid resistant coating (they use this in the printing trade). The whole frame could then be dipped in acid which would only react with the uncoated ribbed inner frame. The acid resistant coat can then be washed off the polished area.

By the way, I have somewhere some shots of an early ("Type A") RK with unmarked frame which also has an unfinished eye. Something also claimed by some to represent a postwar piece !

Any ideas about the etching?

Dietrich

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Reverse

Still early-ish ( concaved rather than a round, dished out back) but the quality of plating much declined on this one.

Reverse, totally unmarked