Stogieman

Nope, the very first version of the MVK of the MVO (a purely enlisted/"other ranks") award was enameled. The 400- Euro one was damaged as well, if I remember correctly? I would not worry about damage, more the rule than the exception. I've seen 6 total, the one I had was the only undamaged one......

Note that this early piece is correct on the white/blue Statutory ribbon...... post 1913, the "war ribbon" could be worn with the MVK

Reverse. Awarded 1866-1905 only.

There's a slightly damaged 1905 BMVK on eBay.de now. Under 300- Euro, last time I looked....... A crisp clean, undamaged one will set you back close to a G-Note.......

Here's an example of what you're looking for:

Hi David, beautiful piece of history........ a true keeper!

Nice cross Haynau! Heiko, nice GROUP!!!!!!

The hinge and catch look unique!

If anyone knows of a place where I can send clear scans of these pages to get a translation, please PM me and I'll give it a go, even if it involves a fee. Thanks! Rick

Reverse......... the style is famililiar, but first time I see this medallion like this. Comments???

And........... to further confuse this issue... This popped up today in germany for 120- Euro asking.

or maybe you could just save the photo of the back of Luftmensch's badge and come to the Nirvana that if it's Juncker, it better look EXACTLY like his. This will be irrespective of whether the badge bears full marks, or just the moon 800. It better be the same..............

The badge in the case is bogus. The mark is bogus. I have no clue what the case is, but it is NOT a period case by Juncker, or by Meybauer.

Which yet again, does not fit to the bar shown. I am willing to accept the research/facts that AW may have been a maker pre-1900 however I would contend that the cross on the bar was not made by him, nor is the bar "real".

Toss the socks, keep the badge........

Hey Ralph, Happy New Year. That's a Romanian Queen Maria Cross, founded March 1917. There's a second & third class in Klietmann. Check in International for more details:

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=4351

Jan.... Rick said there's some issues dating these as the Mongolian Calender (per Dr. Battushig) (page 11)actually begins in 1911 as year one! So the "Year 36" date is actually 1946!!

This is actually is born out by the photograph in my booklet... there were no ribbon bars in Mongolia until 1945.......... while the book says "year 36".........

I would agree with Heiko, the bar is quite new, the repeat clasp is a very low quality fake as well.

Unaltered foto as offered by the seller of the cased badge

And the maker's mark:

And another view:

Additional view:

And therein lies much of the problem Mike. The best and first thing you can do is only buy the badge from someone you know and trust to know what the heck they are doing. Whomever they are, make sure they offer an iron-clad return policy on authenticity.

You can't buy these from photographs unless you relly know what you're doing and even then there's a very large margin for error..... Let's look at another clever offering:

Page 5 & 6

page 3 & 4

Now the speculation is................ why such a low Number and who received the first 3? Was this an "importance" issue? Seniority? Some other condition as to who received which badge?

A rare little gem in a book that I couldn't read for anything.

Photo of the recipient....... tiny, tiny picture.......