Paul L Murphy

Well done, that is excellent :cheers:

A truely crazy price ! Like I said before, how come these people never go nuts on my listings !

A nice award from 1977.

A quick question, is it possible to find out the details of a recipient of the Cross of St George from the award number, in the same way that we can find out about Soviet era recipients ? Are these papers available ? Grateful if anyone could provide information in this regard. Cheers, Paul

It is a prize medal from the Shizuoka Prefectural Agricultural Educational Association.

The Silver Star is more recent (about 1st Gulf War era) so c£10. The Purple Heart is a nice example with a slot broach so probably at least £20 if not more. The Vietnam Medal is original but still only about £3. Overall you did ok, with most of the value in the Purple Heart.

I was actually in Wellington Barracks a few weeks ago when it was sewn onto Ian Mott's tunic. Approval was given for the Garrison Sergeant Major to wear the RSM rank badge on top of four chevrons, as was done in the Victorian era. The badge is a two part badge using a drum major's four chevron badge inverted, with the normal Guards RSM badge sewn onto it. It is very impressive. There are no plans to make a single piece badge for this, it will continue to be sewn together from separate chevrons and royal arms.

Well folks, those of you who like this bar will have a chance to bid on it since it will be for sale in Spink's next medal auction in July.

Bad news for you, the photo does not go with the medal. Reading the inscription from the right to left it says "Born 12th October 1897. On 28th March 1918 photographed in 2nd Company 18th Infantry Regiment".

It is not a Guards item since the rank pip is the normal officer pattern, not any of the Guards patterns.

What do you use to keep them flat ? The problem I have is that most of my certs are rolled so it is nearly impossible to get them to behave for the camera !

Absolutely beautiful. You are correct that it is a 5th class award. How did you manage to photograph it so well ? I can never get documents to come out this clear. :cheers:

The 1st class naval proficiency badges are rare and the 2nd class very scarce. Price wise I think they are undervalued since some of them are not much more expensive than army proficiency badges, however they are a lot harder to find (even in Japan). I hope you will post some pictures of it.

There is a chapter in my book In the Name of a Living God on fireman's badges. I have identified a cross section of 171 different badges. The ones shown above are all recent, ie from the 1980s or later. If anyone is interested in buying a copy of the book then please send me a PM. :cheers:

Foreigners now get the same case as Japanese recipients. The latest attributed item I have seen in the tassled case came from the Taisho era and was a Sacred Treasure 4th Class. I agree that the tassled cases are pretty hard to find. They are easier to find outside Japan than inside, which is not surprising given that the recipients were foreigners.

These came with a large group of items I recently purchased. They appear to be ex-tunic since they have stitch holes all around and the quality of the embroidery is excellent. Could any of the more experienced wing collectors give their view as to whether or not they are the genuine article or a copy ? Thanks in advance. http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_04_2011/post-1487-0-91807700-1302379167.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_04_2011/post-1487-0-99995700-1302379180.jpg

I disagree with Peterson on this point since the example sold from the American numismatic Collection (which was put in there in 1946 by a returning US officer) had the inscription in the same order as previous War Medals. I am aware of at least two other pieces from collections assembled at the end of WWII where the inscription is the same.

The case is Meiji, but I am also not sure on the medal.

The leather case was a private purchase item. They are very rare and difficult to find, even in Japan. This is a lovely set, the characters on the case correspond to the Japanese name of the Rising Sun 6th class.

He wears the Sacred Treasure on his right side to indicate that it is the second class award. If he wore it on the left side it would indicate he had the first class.

The Order of United Glory is incredibly rare. Here is an example of the 6th class.

A lot of the changes will simply be due to a die change since the old die will have worn out and been replaced by a new one. It will not be a conscious decision to change the shape of the mirror or the angle of the wings etc, but rather differences in the way the die was cut. Hence, if the Osaka Mint keep records of when they replaced the relevant dies that would be a good starting point to identify how many different die variations could be out there for each order. Then the problem of identifying them in their correct time period will start, but knowing the number of dies would be an excellent place to begin.

It is masonic. It is the insignia of the Order of the Secret Monitor. This is one of the appendant masonic degrees which masons can join after they become master masons.

I sold one on ebay two weeks ago for $35. How unpredictable is that !

It is a Ho-O Bird surrounded by wisteria and pawlonia leaves. The design allegedly came from an incident when the wife of the Meiji Emperor was asked to suggest a symbol for the newly formed Japanese Red Cross. She took out a jewelled hair pin from her hair and suggested that the design of the pin be used. It was a Ho-O Bird (similar to a phoenix and a symbol of royalty in Japan).