Paul L Murphy

I have heard this story before but it is not correct. I have in my collection a group to a corporal in 2 REP who was at Kolwezi together with the award documents for this medal. He has the cut out bar (it is made of brass, not gold) and he went back to Calvi with the rest of the regiment once the mission was over. I believe that all REP recipients were awarded this bar, if someone lost their original then a replacement would have been the solid type bar but I have not yet seen photographic evidence of one in wear by a REP member. The story of the gold bars is one of those stories that has grown up around the REP over the years.

They are all ok, however the middle one is the type that was awarded to local Zaire troops, not the type for the 2 REP at Kolwezi. While they got the same medal, their Ops Shaba bar is a cut out bar, not a solid bar like this.

The short answer is that nobody knows. This requires a level of original research which is almost akin to what is done with ancient coins in trying to identify mint issues etc. I have not been able to find any information on this in the public domain in Japan so I suspect the information may be lost to time.

The Japanese kept such a record (all awards were numbered consecutively in the award roll and there was a different roll for foreign recipients). Unfortunately all the medal and order rolls were destroyed in the fire bombing of Tokyo during WWII so the information is no longer available.

Reproduction = fake. However his piece lacks the quality of yours, especially around the suspender and the jewels in the bottom tier of the crown. In addition the detailing around the elephants looks "soft" for want of a better expression. Also, the reverse does not appear to be flat, it seems to have a partial mirror image which is something I have never seen on a genuine piece.

That looks fine. There are not that many fakes but there are many differing quality of manufacture since this was produced both locally and in France.

Unfortunately all three medals in post number 4 are fake/fantasy medals that are being churned out in China for the unwary.

They are silver gilt and not hallmarked. The first 153 awards made during the reign of Queen Victoria were in gold, however they soon switched to gilt for cost reasons. A gold one will fetch considerably more than a Victorian silver gilt example but they seldom come up for sale. The GV type is the most common with almost 10,000 awarded, mostly for WWI.

It is not an MC ribbon, it is a KPM (or QPM) ribbon. Also a number of the other ribbons are post 1922 (eg The Defense Medal) so this must be an RUC era tunic, not RIC.

Also this address (Noisiel, Marne la Vallee) on the back of the badge means it was made after 1988.

This order was made by a wide variety of manufacturers in both France and Vietnam, hence the quality of pieces varies a lot (as do the boxes of issue). In general the pieces made by French jewellers are of higher quality than the pieces made in Vietnam.

I am not sure about the age, I suspect the 1930s onwards but I have no proof of that. Given the purely civilian nature of them it never fell within my area of research. I have seen a 3rd class and a 1st class in Japan and they are very beautiful. These are the sort of pieces you decide to buy even if they do not fit into your collection simply because they are such good quality and so nice to look at.

This is the 5th Class Merit Badge of the Japanese Silk Weavers Association. If you look carefully you sill see that the design features silk cocoons and butterflies. The badges of this organisation are all very well made and attractive. They did not make it into my book since they are purely civilian in nature.

It is a third class. This is shown on the obverse, the first character is the kanji for 3. The characters on the reverse do not indicate the class, even though one of them is similar to the older style character for 2.

I disagree. You will often find this on Japanese made non governmental items, however it is more common for items made in the 1950s - 70s than for items made pre war.

It is a 3rd class prize medal for some official department to do with horses (I cannot make out two of the characters since they are heavily stylised).

It is original. However from the rivets on the back of the breast star and the style of box I would say it is a post 1964 award. These have come down a lot in price over the last ten years (but I still do not have one !).

When I was working in Pakistan we used to refer to the office messengers as Peons. It meant a general low level gofer who did just about anything that was required to keep things running smoothly.

It is incorrect to describe it as a Grand Cordon Star. It is the star for the 1st and 2nd classes. The only Japanese orders that have a Grand Cordon are the Order of the Chrysanthemum and the Order of the Rising Sun with Pawlonia Flowers (which is a different order from the Rising Sun). Both of these are single class orders with Grand Cordon as the only class.

It can be translated as Grand Merit Decoration or Grand Cordon Decoration.

This is indeed the small dove type. The two types do not seem to command any difference in price but who knows how that may change in the future.

A nice piece indeed :cheers:

As a general rule the certificates for orders are always watermarked. For medals it varies.

Many thanks for your help. A pity that he cannot be traced, oh well.

You are correct on both counts, they got an award document and they are very difficult to find.