Paul L Murphy

I was outbid on everything. I guess its time to revalue my collection again !

What a wonderful photo. How many stars are on his shoulder badge ? With one central gold stripe he is an NCO so depending on the number of stars a corporal, sergeant or senior sergeant.

The number does correspond to the number on the qualification certificate and hence could be traced to the recipient, if only the French would release the information into the public domain. Until recently they had not done so and I believe it is still restricted information. The best you can do at the moment is to trace it to the year in which the award was made, unless you have the accompanying certificate as well.

Colin,

You are correct, the one with the long third feather is the oldest and the youngest has one belt loop less. Nice pieces, the Golden Kite has always been one of my favourite Japanese awards, especially the Meiji period pieces since then it still meant something to receive it.

Cheers,

Paul

As far as I am aware all Manchukuo medals were made in Japan, including the Red Cross awards. They are a lot scarcer than the comparative Japanese awards.

Most of them are about EUR10 or so. You can buy them directly from the IILE, however the quality is not as good as the original insignia in most cases.

Any Legion badge with a two digit number preceded by R on the reverse is a restrike. They are made by the manufacturers for sale through the IILE and the proceeds go to the upkeep of the Legion veteran home ran by the IILE. R76 in this case means that it was restuck in 1976. An original one of these badges will cost you at least EUR1,500-2,000.

Motorcycle Platoon of the 51st HQ Company of the 1st Free French Division. This is an incredibly rare badge and was locally made in Syria. Can i see the back since most are restrikes.

To my novice eyes, the first medal (on the bow ribbon) looks like a low (7th or 8th?) class of the Order of the Sacred Crown, so this young lady is a "someone".

Then three war medals. The second looks like the 1900 War Medal, which would suggest the first is for the 1894-95 War and the last for the 1904-5 War. Second-guessing the spectrum shifts makes this dicey, however.

I assume the botton row is her Red Cross stuff.

Hoping that Paul will pop by now and straighten us all out . . . .

I am with Ed on this one. The order is definitely the Sacred Crown and it is either a 7th or 8th class. In my own collection I have a Russo Japanese War 8th Class Sacred Crown group documents etc. to a Red Cross nurse who served in the campaign. I believe nurses would get the 8th class and senior matrons etc. the 7th. Before anyone asks for photos of my group it is locked in a bank vault in Ireland so sorry

Lawrences award is a Showa piece. You will also notice that the purple enamel is different in tone, this is what I p[reviously went on but your point about the veins of the leaf appears to be correct. I had not noticed this before.

Cheers,

Paul

It is a Komsomol members badge from the 1970s and 80s. You can pick these up in Moscow markets for about 10 Roubles (20 US cent) each. The pin back type are civilian, the screwback type are military.

It is difficult to say, the changes in enamel colour do not see to be time consistent. Having said that, the bow lapel pin with this is Meiji period, in Showa it was the round lapel pin, and at first glance the order does look more like the colours you would expect to see more often on a Meiji piece.

I hope this helps.

Paul

Unless Chris is older than he pretends the answer should be no. The battledress style uniform was phased out in the early 1970's, the exact timing depending on the unit, and replaced by the type of uniform that they wore until the intorduction of the "Terre de France" uniforms about 10 years ago.

Oscar Wilde was correct, the only way to get rid of temptation is to give into it !

Terry,

Yes, that is correct. In fact even the earlier post war examples have rivets on the reverse. I think they probably madethe change sometime in the 1970s but I am not sure on this. Since they changed the design of the Sacred Treasure in 2003, adding a pawlonia leaf between the ribbon and planchet, these types with no rivets are actually underrated and comparatively scarce.

There are also some poor quality copies that have no rivets on the back but the obverse quality gives it away as a copy.

Regards,

Paul

I normally sell these for between $240 and $280, depending on condition and age. The Meiji era pieces are worth more than the Showa pieces.

Any ideas about this one? It's blank on the reverse with a thin horizontal pin.

Hi Jeff,

This is a prize badge from a youth association.

Cheers,

Paul

That set of documents would have still been a bargain at twice that price. It is all his promotion documents and advnaces through the ranks of honour. These are often more difficult to find than the medal and order certificates but they provide you with a lot of information about the person`s advance through his career. Wish I had not missed that set !

Johnnie is an excellent seller, he avoids the usual b*ll s*it stories that some other sellers of Japanese items try to use. His descriptions and knowledge of Japanese are very good so you can trust what he says.

In fact ........ he is almost as good as me

I normally sell these in the box for between $60 and $80 depending on condition and how lucky I was on my purchase price. I think the seller is just getting lucky on this, they are normally not too difficult to find so I cannot understand why it is going for such a high price ! Send them my way, I think I have a few in stock

Gordon,

Yes, this is a Meiji piece.

It is uncertain when exactly the die types changed but the experienced dealers in Japan believe that it was about the start of the Taisho era. It is difficult so be more specific since I have not yet got a WWI period Golden Kite with the document where I can be certain that it is original to the certificate rather than a made up group. The 1904-05 groups which I have handled have all had the earlier type of order, while the 1940 China Incident issues are all the later type. The only major issuances between these dates was for 1914-20 and 1931-34. I have handled one group from the latter conflict and it was a later striking.

Needless to say the mass of awards made posthumously after 1940 are all the later type strikings. About 30% of all Japanese war dead in WWII received the Golden Kite which considerably devalued it as an award and also means that the earlier strikings are far rarer than the later examples. This final point is not yet appreciated by collectors so fill your boots with Meiji period pieces in the hope that one day people realise how scarce they are !

An article on the numebrs awarded for each conflict is on my list of things to do, not only for the Golden Kite but also for the Sacred Treasure and Rising Sun as well. On 29th April 1940 there were literally millions of Rising Suns handed out for the China Incident whereas earlier pieces are much more scarce.

Best regards,

Paul

Correct, there are 18.

Yes, this is a Showa piece. I always find it easier to look at the number of holes in the centre of the sword belt, there is one less on the Showa pieces than on the Meiji ones.

I cannot imagine that these are now going for $3,000 ! I have a spare one for sale so I must dig it out. I bought a nice documented group two years ago which had one of these and the whole group cost less than that. Hence, I now have a single medal for sale since I previously had a single no bar one of these. Irish medals must be one of the best investments I have ever made, I wonder is it time to start cashing in ??

By the way-what do you think of the "1916" group on eBay?

Can you post a link to it, I cannot find it ??