Claudius

A court mounted Exemplary Work Service Medal -NICE!

great piece! Any hallmarks on any of the medals?

yup...that's bad.

Hello Mark McM; I've looked at your photos of this medal though digital magnification. I have to say that I don't like it. This medal is known to be faked and some are from over 15 years ago (when I almost bought a bad one from e6ay). To be specific, here are SOME of the features that lend to my conclusion. On the reverse, there is that frequently seen squashed ose mint pressing. But this one is irregular and looks spalded. Where the ose and medal meet, there is the area where the coin edging is washed down to form the ose. On period medals the transition area is smooth and defined. This one is rough and hammered. Again on the reverse, the crossed sword and rifle; the sword edges look uneven and crude.

IMO, I don't like the badge. I think the sloppy catch and pin soldering is done to deceive the collector into believing it was a "home" repair by the original recipient. But I also don't like the badge itself. It doesn't have any period construction hallmarks I would expect. But there are others who handle a lot of these badges and have the experience to object my assessment.

nice little group!

Really great battle bars. It's not common to have three! And I really like the time periods represented by the various medals.

Nice little group.

It is the photographer's comments. I was concerned that it might be something like that. I recall what a another collector and researcher once said to me; "They didn't put their names on their photos because they know who they are. They didn't to have a name on the back to tell them." Even if you could access the back of the photo, there is no guarantee that his name is back there. It really gets back to tracking down the family that had it.

I can't make it out. See if you can adjust the color and light settings to get a high contrast between the background and the writing. Then, maybe someone fluent in Spanish might be able to make out the name. Is there any writing on the back of the photo?

Hello Bucky01; Do these Orders and Medals belong to the man in the photo? Outstanding! He must of had an interesting life being involved in the Cuban campaign of 1895-98. Apparently, as a Cuban volunteer. He was well decorated by Spain for his service. Are they rare? Individually, not so much. But they are REALLY rare all together as a group belonging to a Cuban man's service to Spain before and during(?) the Spanish-American War.

Hello Kekoa Dettloff; This is amazing stuff on his life. It could be it's own thread. It should be it's own thread on Captain Heinrich Berger. I would collect this guy in a heartbeat! Thank you for sharing.

Hello Kekoa Dettloff; Welcome to GMIC. To answer your question, No it's not too late to add to this thread, or any other thread here. Thank you for posting this unusual medal bar! You mentioned you are researching Captain Henry Berger. Is there a reason for your research? A relative or you collected some of his possessions? Just curious. What can you tell us about him. There may be some on this forum that have more information on him.

I honestly don't know how much it is worth. They are obviously worth quite a lot to the veterans of the conflict that asked for their issuance for nearly 70 years until they were finally issued in early 2013. I believe it was the intention to award the Arctic Star to the approximately 400 remaining living veterans (in 2013) and to others posthumously. I have not seen one for sale, but if the other WWII stars are any indication...around $50. Maybe more because it is a "newer" medal to the collecting community. Maybe less because it came out in 2013 and are not (yet) engraved to the recipient.

An excellent doc group to an underappreciated class of men that shared the trenches with their combatant countrymen.

I see it now -you are correct! Symmetry be not proud

agreed. A couple of the medals are out of order. It's like someone played three-card monte with the medals and this is where they ended up

that sea monster was real, it had eyes, a horny sort of head and teeth. It's "entirely feasible". It would be cool if they would retrieve it, but I'm sure it would be very costly and then there is the custody battle. Who owns it; the Germans, the British or the Sea Monster community?!

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-37691283

Red Eagle, Scotplen and Tunneller; These are all great pieces! <<<applause, applause, applause>>>

That's the CO? I thought he was the kid bugler. Not even a side arm...that I could see.

Ribbon bars in Post #1 and #15: I noticed the SEM3 (without swords, earned in 1904) is before two (or three) wartime, combat awards. Why did he do that?

There is no "Colonial" forum, however depending on what you have; there is the "China" forum including imperial era, "Coin" forum or the "Imperial German Research" forum for documents and photos.

...and I still believe the Jetton you posted is a copy. Look through a book on Jettons or look at what internet dealers have for sale. (Dealers that have been around for several years and have 100% money back) and you will see a level of quality that I don't see on your piece.