Stogieman

And a third, very early 2-war set!

And the details of the 2 awards:

A picture of our hero. The 9th September is on a Brass suspension and is a type 2a, nut back

To further complicate matters, here's another pair from WW2 & Post WW2:

Interior of the 1974 award booklet:

OK, last one from me, let's see yours! Here's one we have seen before, but now we can see a document! Excellent Railway Employee from 1974:

Interior of the 1985 award booklet:

Now, compare the 1965 quality to this Honored Railway Employee Badge from 20 years later (1985) Stefan Ivanov Stoikov received this one:

And imagine this... his photo in the back!

Interior of document with name, etc.

Well, I cannot find more than a passing mention of these railway badges, so here's a new thread to add yours into! Show 'em if you have 'em! I'll start off with a very gard to find Honored Railway Employee Badge. Semo Georgiev Ivanov received this in 1965. I have not seen another example yet.

Interior of document:

Different style of document, but still very early! (1961)

H&S is good enough for me. I should have thought about the ribbon as well, especially since I just sold my cased combattant type and that ribbon matches Chet & H&S... Geez....

Outstanding Bar Beau!!

Yes, but normally on a bar of this type we do see an overlap??

No, I understand that scenario and discount it. I'm sure he sold it just the way he bought it... but that doesn't make it right. The biggest reason I discount it is the construction of the bar tells me 1914 on..... Not pre-1900 and then changed to reflect new style statements... We are talking about a Bavarian here! I would say the EK2 makes the bar correct. try hanging one on and see how the Bav LSM lines up. Irrespective..... I would have cheerfully bought the KVM for more than a C-Note in a flash. that medal falls into the "I don't care what Nimmergut says, I'll take every one you can bring me at book value, every day of the week" category!

And.... his extremely scarce document for the Saxon Honor Cross with Swords. This award (to me at least) is one of the ones like an NCEK2; you simply must find a mounted one to know you have one of the rare awarded examples.

His rather scarce document for the Saxon-Meiningen War Merit Medal, amongst the very first batch awarded in 1915.

Every award is neatly entered in his Militar=Pass. Pay a special note the Dienstauzeichen 3.Kl and the award date! The Twins are reasonable certain that this is the first documented instance of a Saxon war-time LSM award. The medal is not in the group and I assume he may have never received the actual medal.... Also of note, he received an EK2 in 1914 yet it was 1916 before he received his first Saxon decoration!

His medal & ribbon bar. beautifully preserved despite being wrapped in the original tissue, on the original cotton pad, in the original box:

Willy Lau spent his entire career in one regiment (IR133), participated in almost every major battle of WW1, picked up an impressive rack of decorations yet never received a wound that qualified him for a Wound Badge! I'm sure many of you saw this flash by a website last week... I simply could not resist the chance to keep watch over this one for awhile. I can count on one hand the number of groups like this (complete!) that have turned up in the last 10 years. Combine that with the extraordinary rarity of his Honor Cross with Swords (~1500 awards).... well, no regrets!

Christophe, mon ami.... un medalgroup merveilleux à un dirigeant courageux, merveilliex!

Well, I have been very good this year..... Maybe Santa will send them. I would love to get a copy of the 1972 one.... Library of Congress... next search!