Graf

That is a nice information That is possible as well Only the man in the photo can give us the correct answer Good Work Steve !

Very nice observation Interesting photo indeed I suspect that if his wife passed away he decided to carry on the her legacy. As you see the ribbon is a lady version

Nice I have only one Commander -French made Never went for more Vatican decorations

Yes, interesting cross I can contribute the short swards as a maker error That does not make it more expensive then the others, unless someone wants to have it in their collection and is willing to pay extra Nice observation Cheers

There are very cheap one peace/part crosses on the market Thanks God they are marked with "R"

Not the best quality As Igor said in his words it was awarded to low ranking military persons and the quality was not at the best Quite common cross, although I have seen crosses which were very questionable Cheers

That is nice and with Original box Congrats It is nice that younger people start collecting 17 Wow that is very young ..and already have a nice rare "bird" in your collection Collecting is not only fun, but also keep the history alive I do not have face book, Also i want to keep it as it is Best regards

Yes, it is sad that families from one or other reason depart from such items Every time when i am approached by family members for opinion whether to sell or to keep similar items I do my best to convince them to keep them.Their are significant part from the family history Once gone they are gone

I have 6th Class of the Order for Military merit with crown with flat reverse Congrats I think the 6th Classes from both Orders are quite rare

I agree and it will be with broader arms comparing to most of the 1914 EK2

Hi gjm, If want us to post pictures of people who were awarded and wearing them we have a topic that is going on

Yes it is common butchery They do the same with the 1929 crosses with round 3 - butcher very nice EK2 to convert to EK1

I agree However those crosses marked with the LDO - L/14 are very rare

Nice Work Steve. Very interesting person he was moved around in different positions From the decorations it looked he only has been involved in direct military actions in the early stages of his military service Most of the time he was on different organizational positions in the army

Hi Egorka Correct translation Well Done That is the Grand Officer or Second Class of the Bulgarian Order for Military Merit In the Document it was not mentioned whether the Order was with War decoration, therefore it can be assumed that it was without it and that is the 1915-1918 Commemorative Medal

Nice work Tony

Hi Ilieff, Good points. I also was tempting to mention that this issue was given beyond 1918 during the early years of King Boris III However Laurentius request was -" I need to confirm (somehow) that he received the Bulgarian Civil Merit Order somewhere around 1900-1920." That is why I tried to confirm that the Order was very likely given during King Ferdinand period Regards Graf

I am glad that information has increased Congrats

Number 5 is 100% : General-leytenant (Lieutenant General) Nikola Petkov Hadzhipetkov, Chief of Staff of the Bulgarian Army (10 December 1938-11 August 1941)

Welcome to the Club. It is a pity you cannot post any photos of the cross Here are pictures of the very first emission l of the soldiers cross it is made from silver The swards are normal size You can come across from time to time with some small variations of the different models of the cross however those variations could be explained with some errors during the making of the crosses

Very nice Tony

Thank you That is some news At least you know that the Bulgarian Order was awarded during this period. I am not sure whether you can trace from the Bulgarian site exactly when was awarded You might dig on the Dutch site for any more information Cheers

Welcome

Nice pictures Tony

It is a an early Overview of the Order for Civil Merit (part of my collection) The Fifth Class Cross on the bar is the same as the one without the ribbon on the very right of the picture You can see that the design is the same The crosses with the domed crown are the 1st Prince Ferdinand Issue 1891-190 Once the Prince Ferdinand proclaimed himself as King of Bulgaria in 1908 the crown changed, however the cross design staid the same till 1918 ( In this year King Ferdinand abdicated in favour of his oldest son Boris, who became King Boris III) I hope there could be a reference somewhere to bring more information for your research In a book published by Bulgarian author Todor Petrov in 2005 there are tables of the numbers of awarded Bulgarian orders during the period 1880-1908 According to this book The Fifth Class of the Order for Civil Merit was awarded to 288 foreign nationals. Unfortunately this period is for the Princely Issue -with the domed crown (the picture of the two Fifth class crosses for man and ladies) I hope some information does exist for the King's period 1908-1918