Stogieman

My new cased Fifth Class Order!

And finally, Gold Grade Case:

Here's the case for the Silver Grade:

OK, Greetings & well wishes to Charles from Rick Research! As well as some spiffy new scans that were requested awhile back. (My apologies for the delay... no point in me attempting to mimic the master's skills) Front & back of Bronze Grade Case:

News from beyond! SMMs to Recipients of Other Awards in Our 2008 Published Rolls Recipients of the SMM also holding these awards: Sachsen-Weimar: General Decoration in Gold X (GSAE1X aka SWA1X or AEz1X)— Schweinbach, Willy—VFw Veit, Richard—Fw dL Sachsen-Weimar: General Decoration in Silver X (GSAE2X or AEz2X)— Filler, Richard Uffz dR 6./ IR 94 Gottbehür (?) / Gottbehüt (?), Armin—Uffz dR (K.S.) IR 178 clearly written with last letter of name “t” in the Weimar Roll, yet clearly “r” in the SMM roll (same rank, but in K.S. Leib Gren Rgt 100—and SURELY there cannot have been TWO NCOs with this name?! Waldeck VerdienstkreuzX— Kleine, Heinrich—was in 3. MGK. PROBABLY the 1915 Uffz who got WgVMX Waldeck: Gold Merit Medal with Swords (WgVMX)— Gitter—add 1st name Adolf Kleine—no 1st name Uffz and only “MGK/ IR 83” PROBABLY Heinrich see WVKX Waldeck: Silver Merit Medal with Swords (WsVMX)— Höse—add 1st name Karl and was in 2. MG Komp Württemberg Non-Württemberg Awards— Fischer, Ludwig—unit was 1. MG Komp/ K.W. LIR 123, award date 21.06.17 Roßmann (ß not ss), first name was Max—unit was deutschen Mobilen Bahnhofs Kdtr 6/XIII, award date 27.01.17 Sauer, Hermann—actual award date was 21.12.16 These are all the additional awards found into January 1918, though the backlog from record-breaking October 1917 bestowals meant that late awards are far, far out of chronological order. To repeat earlier updates: amazingly enough, it may actually BE possible to identify SMM “pairs” with certain “exotic” (as in rarely bestowed on Meiningers) WW1 decorations for… mere NCOs. Since it is unlikely that the massive Saxe Meiningen War Merit Medal (SMM in “Rank List speak”) Roll will ever be published/publishable, I provide these annotations for you fortunate few who have Daniel’s and my 2008 published Rolls volumes. I have completed transcribing almost 16,000 of the approximately 23,000 SMMs on combatant ribbon entries. Earlier “updates” were found somewhere back in the old ongoing “Rolls work” thread. I’ve asked Evil Ricky to just post this as a new thread for me since I am cheerfully recuperating without internet service with no plans to return online. Good luck and Happy Collecting! Rick Research

Karl Zaumsiegel, cabinetmaker of Unterwirbach, received the Saxe-Meiningen War Merit Medal on Combatant Ribbon as a Pionier in 2nd Company/ Mortar (Minenwerfer) Battalion VII 12 October 1917. His entry in the Meiningen SMM Roll is completely struck out across all columns, with the “Remarks” column bearing notation “Eingezogen lt. Urteil des Sondergerichtes Weimar 21. Sept. 1944 (Se.?) 17.1.45.”— “Revoked per verdict of the Special Court, Weimar 21 Sept. 1944 (abbreviation illegible) 17.1.45.” The notorious Nazi “Special Courts,” particularly after the 20 July 1944 bomb plot, dispensed summary “justice” for “political” crimes in wartime ranging from treason to defeatist mutterings to black marketeering to … whatever the last ditch Nazi regime chose to charge reluctant Germans with. Without legal representation for defendants, death sentences—which could neither be appealed nor delayed—were routinely handed down. In over 15,000 entries for the SMM transcribed to date, there were 2 criminal revocations during the First World War, and 5 under the Third Reich. Zaumsegel’s is one of only two wartime Sondergericht convictions. With the singular “distinction” of being completely crossed out in the Roll pages, the terse “remarks” do not state that the Ultimate Penalty was applied, but the circumstantial evidence there seems to indicate that. Searching through the remaining approximately 8,000 awards of the SMM, the only other “Special Court” revocation found was for Erich Röser, draftsman of Schalkau, who received his SMM as a Musketier in the 5th Co./ Inf Rgt 135 on 4 February 1918. His “Remarks” column shows “Durch Urteil des Sondergerichtes Weimar v. 27.9. 1944 zum dauernde Verlust der Orden u. Ehrenzeichen verurteilt! (Abbreviations again indecipherable) 7.I. 1945”— “By verdict of the Special Court, Weimar of 27.9.1944 sentenced to lasting loss of orders and decorations!” Despite that emphatic January 1945 “!”, Röser’s name is not even scratched off. Possibly his awards were not actually available to be seized and returned to the indignant (geriatric Nazi?) archival clerk? Just imagine, as the Thousand Year Reich collapsed, enemy armies inside both the western and eastern borders, bombing going on around the clock… kangaroo courts had enough TIME to waste and fascist bureaucrats had nothing better to do than shuffle lethally “inconsequential” paperwork off to a remote FORMER government’s repository, whose 4-F and presumably elderly minion creaked through the dark, neglected storage shelves just in order to make forfeiture comments on medals bestowed on nonentities almost 30 years previously. Just imagine if the Third Reich had put more EFFORT into actual MILITARY DEFENSE measures!!! My thanks to Evil Ricky for posting this for me since I no longer have internet service. Rick Research

Back to my original qhestion.... Any way to research a numbered Romanian award? Thanks! Rick

OK, my next question becomes: What country used this type of mounting? I don't see this as a Hungarian, Bulgarian or Soviet Mounting Bar. I cannot comment on Romania, I have never seen any other examples of Romanian Bars from the Socialist period. Is it Czech? This seems the next somewhat logical conclusion given three Czech medals. If it was Czech, what would the most likely first two, or three pieces have been? In any event, I am still very pleased with my purchase as the Romanian Order & Hungarian Order are extremely nice pieces on their own!

Details of the DoM. Note the multiple pieces visible on the close up of the serial number.

Reverse of the bar:

Hello Alex, yes that is the bar, and the price was negotiated for less than he was asking. In my opinion, whether it is assembled, or not.... is irrelevent at this moment as in my opinion, the price paid is far less than the sum of the parts as individual items. Now, having said that, the bar is now in hand and went to visit the scan-master. here are some far better images. Again, what is unknown is if the bar is an assembly of parts, the bar of someone with rank or the second row of a bar to whomever. In my opinion, all three options are a still open possibilities. I will not be tearing it apart anytime soon. Here's what we do know. RPR Defense of the Motherland. Multi-Part base with serial number 194 (C stamped below) on the reverse. It is not a "thin" stamping. In fact it is multiple pieces assembled into one medal. So, pre-1965 award. Now the question becomes, what grade of the DoM is it? First Class was a screwback, so clearly not first. There is no gilding on the swords, nor on the starburst... so? Is it a Third, or a Second Class? What's with the swords? Other than Anatoly's linked example, I'm having a hard time finding any examples on the forum or net with swords. Nor can I find an image anywhere of an example with a serial number. Does anyone else have a serial numbered piece? Any and all help is greatly appreciated. With respects to the Hungarian Order of Merit, First Class (Klein Decoration).... other than a flake off of the enamel star where it's been bumping against the Soviet Jubilee Medal, it's flawless and exactly what it should be, so pre-1956 award. The three Czech medals... well, there's nothing odd about that combination and with the RPR version of the DoM, a XX Year Soviet and XX year Czech Jubilee medals; eveeything seem to date all the pieces quite nicely into somewhere between 1949 and 1965.

Yes, that is the one I am asking about. This one has swords and is numbered:

Hi Tim, I have a large number of these, mostly in groups with the documents. Including a couple near mint!

I don't know how many were actually awarded. Earliest award date I have a document for this type of document is 1960. I do have early awards in 1959 on the first type of document. I have seen these awarded late as well, into the 1970's. What is very hard to find is the star in exceptional, bright, undamaged condition. Most of them show enamel damage and wear to the center disc, loss of gilding, etc. Here's an example of the first type of document:

anybody??? Numbered award... Romania?

Well after reviewing most in here, I am still unsure if this is a "Military Merit Medal" or a "Meritorious Service Medal, Pre-1957". Can someone help me with that? In reviewing many threads I did catch Charles' comment regarding pre-57 center enamel fields being a significantly darker blue. But this one doesn't look quite as dark. Has it been altered from post '57 back to pre '57? Thanks, Rick

An additional example:

Another great thread, much knowledge shared. Thanks, I am learning! My small contribution:

My interpretation of the written comment is that the recipient had the actual medal stolen and sold by "Bold" but he still had his documents.... hope those were not stolen from him as well. The amount of theft that is going on over ODM is extremely disturbing....

Interior details:

Can anyone help here?

Hi Dan, thanks for the assistance. I have only a few DDR pieces, I always felt that the quality was somewhat lesser than many other fraternal socialist allies of the CCCP. Most of what I have is in groups awarded to Security people in other countries. Watch for an updated Minister Pankov thread in the Bulgarian Socialist Forum to see a rather nice little DDR award & document. Again, thanks for the help!

I don't really collect DDR but this was extremely cheap and I just couldn't resist the splash of red enamel! But what is it?

Well he looks about as unhappy as I am that I sold documented badge #21 many moons ago... :angry:

Please visit this thread for more examples of this interesting badge: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=40083&st=0&gopid=399229&