Stogieman

And the document forwarding the cased order to the recipient:

And the lid:

And some better pix courtesy of the (Truly) Evil Twin? !!

His face has been seen before. The really interesting part here is we have a J?ger with 3 Turkish Decorations, a Turkish Pilot Badge but NO corresponding German and/or Austrian Pilot Badge!

Ebay bar is fabulous with the House Order.... but I don't think KM because of the VDF Bar on the FAK2 (????????)

Can anyone who has authentic "Honored Employee" Badges for KGB, MVD & NKVD please post their examples for me? Thanks!!

And a really good example to study. The characteristics of these runes have not been duplicated/faked yet. They come close, but they have not made it. Yet. This one makes 3 I think that we're aware of that were real. This one is the latest war-time example that was found, composed of zinc. Another interesting point to note is the plastic backing. I've had 3 different SS devices on ribbon bars. An eight, a four and the runes for 12. Every one of them was on this plastic backing, which is not all that common.

Despite my "Evil-Twin's?" denigration of Mongolian items as Yak-Herding Badges........ I find them to be as visually pleasing as much of what was produced in Austria & Germany prior to 1920! Also, this seems to be an exception where the civil pieces (RBI,RBL) are actually a little nicer looking (in my eyes) than RBC.

Yes, but I'll wager a nice WW2 era mount with Odessa is pretty hard to find as well. This might fall into that "Close-enough for gubmint work" category........

I think The Brunswick House Order to be one of the most visually-pleasing of all the Imperial Orders. From the merit crosses on up, it's just a stunning piece. Thanks WC for pointing out the development and changes! Great thread!

Uh-Oh.......... try re-starting your machine! Sometimes it's just a RAM overload.

Impressive as usual Rick! Chris, now you have a name and some real history! Good deal!

Nice thread guys and a very interesting display of devices! How many more different ones can we come up with?

This "unusual" RAD set in silver & bronze is only the second I have ever seen and only the third that I know of in collections. Since the devices were only allowed (what was it Rick, 1941??) they are very, very difficult to find!

This piece was pretty neat as Soviet Bars go. I dropped these off at Rick's today and I was impressed with exactly how cheesy this style of bar was!

Notice that he is very wrongly against the regs of the era (pre-1918 that is) wearing all 3 grades of his BMVO on that top of several rows of medal bars!

Hi Stijn, very nice set. Can you confirm no numbers on the back? I concur with Rick... so many of these simply ripped apart to sell off the badges.

Hi Ed, very beautiful medals and a very informative thread! Thanks!

In my eyes, the "flipping" of the crests is not someone who is faking awards would think of. I have no physical evidence to back up my feelings, just a common sense gut call that if it was made in Hungary, what proud Hungarian would suborn his own country's crest to the Austrians? ;>) Now, as an aside, I would not accept an Austrian Badge from any era other than 1920-30 with these wire attachments of the eagle. During 1920-30 Zimbler used a similar attachment, but not prior to this era and all of the badges had a very distinct "mirror" back with very bright fire gilding.

That 1813 is not much older than me ;>)

Schutztruppe, welcome to the forum! If you have a website on this book, please post a link in the book forum as well!

Interesting comparison Greg. I concur with Gordon that there were pieces made during the 1934-45 era, but I've never really seen one until now.

Need a picture!

Fabulous photo. It's actually pretty hard to find a photo of the SHRK in wear... Thanks for showing this one!

Can you hear the music? "when will they ever learn? When will they everrrrrr learn?"