Stogieman

Up close & personal..........

As an aside....... if you like the Iron Crown.... here's a nice cased example of the Second Class Neck Decoration mit KD

However......... like the Iron Crown, The Leopold Order had the same ribbon irrespective of war/peace. However the addition of the swords device was used to denote a combat award. In addition, both the Iron Crown & The Leopold Orders would have additional "Kriegs Decoration" added to the order....... the Laurel leave wreath in enamel for the Iron Crown and the Green Banner/Laurel Leaves for the Leopold Order.

However...... the red statute ribbon agains signifies a peacetime award.... but you will find the swords on the war ribbons.......

Again, we have the same situation with the Gold 7 Silver Merit Crosses.... usage of the War Ribbon in and of itself signifies a "combat" award.......

Whereas the Order of the iron Crown bore the same statutory ribbon whether peacetime or combat. The usage of the swords device was to denote the difference between the two.......

Yes...... with the Signum Laudis Medals, simply awarded on the War Ribbon alone signifies a "combat" award of the medal....... The swords are redundant and there's nothing in the statutes that using swords signifies anything significant. Repeat awards are shown by the bar alone. Peacetime awards of the Signum Laudis would be on the solid red statute ribbon......

Sure, go ahead and taunt me. Do you have a photo of the Naval Aviation School Badge pre-1943? My information is the bulk of these badges were not even made again after about 1940/41 latest....

Ahhhh yes, the obligatory "stairs" photo..... these are always nice. A quick zip over to The Aerodrome might yield more details on this photo as well as on your tentative man......

Hi Ed! Thanks for posting this up!

David, the Sax-Meiningen is a war decoration, not a NC one??

I think Dolf is right, someone has taken a step into "The Dark Side"....... lured by profits.... We saw the same thing with a fellow in Germany. Sold a big bunch of real ribbon bars that went for some pretty serious money...... next thing you know, he has an endless supply of items, all strikingly similar, all with subtle errors and problems that only an experienced collector will notice..... or at least a suspicious one. Currently, he's our biggest and most favorite fake peddler in Imperial....... A slippery slope the Dark Side it is.......

I'm not sure I agree with that... we have a member who has posted a numbered badge awarded in 1973 that has a number that precedes a 1950's award of the same badge? You run into the same issue with NKVD.... award numbers are not chronological. In fact, there wasn't even a consistent serial number range! Seemed to vary by maker maybe?? More on this as I explore that fact..

Well, I would agree here, the "We Won" is highly suspect at best and it sure does look bleached. The oddball numbers, not so much of an issue as we do see that.... Take the Honored Employee Eggs as an example. It appears they were all made in one batch and awarded in no certain order for at least the next 40 years!

Christophe... no photo of yours??

Interesting bar Paul, is it yours?

Hoping someone can tell me who the guy on the right is and why is he smiling?

The enamel on the Bravery Medal has been replaced as well..... but I just could not resist, the price was fantastic and I did not have any example of the Moscow & K?nigsberg Medals in any other group.

And the reverse....

My new Plastic Medal Bar courtesy of Alexei....

OK, that was just yucky........

Les, that wound badge was made by the same maker as this:

Wonderful Andreas!!

Nice and growing group Chet. Only one floating out there I have seen recently was a single for the '14 EK2

Well, you have a rather astounding find. Only the third NC version of the Napoleonic series I have ever seen. These cmpaign medals were awarded in 1813, 1814, 1813-14, 1815 and 1813-15 !! Quite the variations to try and search for!