Rogi

Great pics, missed a lot of your new posts JapanX looks cool :)

The only way to go passing down to owns children excellent news can you take some photos of the final restoration please ? So we can go Ohhhh Shiny once some new life is brought into the helmet :)

Fooled me too looked like an Austria La Patriae au Humanitati :)to me, just couldn't figure out, why the bars? :)

You are right as well my friend Balkan producers and a lot of other nations make fakes too It is just impossible when you see or experience the mass amount of fakes from China to think otherwise as well or to count China out they have huge manufacturing devices lol :)

They have certain streets in China where they make specific fake items, you can pick sometimes out of catalogue or bring your own photos for a custom order. There is a huge collecting community in China for Yugoslavian Orders and medals (I have 4 Chinese friends that collect Yugo like crazy down there ) I don't doubt that they have at the very least a couple hundred guys that manufacture fakes out there , I'd bet on there being a whole street that makes fake orders and medals, like there is for watches/clothes etc

The Chinese market really took up steam in faking our orders and medals in the 1990s after the initial wave of items from the Balkans dwindled. I believe that at the very least, each of our higher orders has a substantial fake somewhere :(

looks like Емин Деја as rank? Which would be a Ottoman customs rank, similar to steward or Tax Official, very interesting as if I read the rank correctly these men could also be non-Muslims While the other "rank" looks like Емин веу which means higher (Customs officer/tax official etc or whatever the Ottoman rank is :S ) I can't make out the name :S I'm not that great on these old docs and reading them I'll have a try tonight again :)

I'd say fake, other features are very poor as well and without exterior shot, I'd pass. Especially for the price these are going for in today's market, I'd rather not risk it

This should be stickied up at the top, I think it would really help the family out and would be nice for these to stay within our GMIC family to those who cherish Rick's docs and legacy.

I don't know, the busted latch kinda ruins the whole outlook on the case itself sad really.

How is this not legit! 0 Rep gives so much credibility to this listing lol (joke ) No, seriously, its sad people resort to this style of listings :(

Excellent piece and addition to the collection :D

I would give you a thumbs up smiley for this post, if I could or a "like" hehehe :)

Agreed with all above Whatever the grainy thing is on them, it aint silver that is for sure :D

Pesh, publishers don't read through books, they just look at the pictures (joke ) hehehehe I am hopping there are many photos ! hehehe

Recently found this one online on the big auction site, could be manufacturing mistake or repair job (since the needle on the reverse was broken, it isn't out of the question that it could have fallen but again could of happened any time and we can't tell) Although this one has small bits of black in the white enamels from what I can tell in the photos. Different style Torch too which is cool #2

The Crowns looks very Italian in nature (2 small ones) the other large ones with 5 points (3 in total) look non-European to me. I'll do some digging and see what they might be :)

I was referring to the Red enamel on the stars (which can break fairly easily, usually 1 fall is what it takes) , I can only say through personal experience but my father had his Order of the Republic sent into the Army to have the enamel repair work done (although he had the complete overhall since everything was broken on the enameling, to who it was sent, I have no idea), I remember as a child it being Orange instead of the Ruby/Scarlet Red on other orders. This is where my favorite color, Orange originally began Of course they could have sent him a replacement, but it had the same knicks and dings as his older one, so I'm assuming they did repair work. I've seen a couple listed online in similar states, most with full enamel work (since most have had these enamel fully break) but occasionally you can find one with 3 replacements and 1 intact or various combos. In my experience most of these replacements had everything replaced to match the other stars and make the Order uniform. They seem to all have the thinner gilding in the interior of the star. Here are some examples of online Stars, you can see where the Orange in the bottom picture resembles the same Orange as in this Order in the thread (which I put as the 1st star for comparison) and if you notice the repair wasn't done perfectly as the re-gilded area is crooked on the bottom star. Of course we could say this is all speculation and it could very well be a manufacturing error, but this is all I can convey from personal experience The right Stars are from what the Scarlet/Ruby color was intended to look like. The Oranges all seem to have rough looking areas on their enamel. It resembles sand when I look at it from my perspective, this area can either be rough or a clear and clean texture depending on how the enamel has set. Although in these orange pieces the "sand" look is always present. Unfortunatley with not too much info. on Yugoslavian Orders and production methods, I can't say for sure and can only offer what I've experienced. The white enamel has an odd dots as well, but there are a couple in similar orders. There is also a crack (hairline) in the white enamel, but I won't go into that for now. It is an interesting piece with character it isn't mint, but very close to it, there are a couple areas on the reverse with noticeable wear scratches etc. and the central Torches and wreath are fine at best in gilt wear, there is a noticeable difference between the central Torch and Wreath and the gilding on the base (the base of the order) Whether this is a repair to the enamel or manufacturing defect I don't know, but I'd be interested in other's opinions on this piece as well as I'm opinion to others' experiences and info.

The enamel is replacement looks very similar to nail polish, is it "hard" when you touch it a bit with the finger? Everything else looks fine (even the wreath and Star on the torch is even in these photos) the first photo on this topic looked like the star had smaller arm on the right edge. It is silver, later period issue congrats

Ah so yours was the left order not the right one and it has a "hallmark", I was under the assumption that it doesn't have any hallmark. Ok if it has the Ikom mark it is silver I've got a couple of their pieces that are definatley silver and each has this marking. Paja and I have been discussing this one and their markings for a while I'm 99.9% sure your piece is silver gilt, from our conversation now that we see the reverse and marking. There are also a lot of Yugoslavian Orders with 0 hallmarks and are silver I wouldn't worry about the hallmark too much. It doesn't have abrasive surface on its reverse, most of these are metal and not silver if they are abrasive. Would you be able to take a high quality photo of the front of the order as well? I think that there was a repair to the star's enamels as we've previously talked about The only other thing that concerns me about this piece is the difference in Gilding, the back and "base" of the piece is almost mint in the Gilt. While the central "Flame" and Wreath appear warn. I'd love a better shot of those areas to see if it is the quality in photo or if this actually is a difference in gilding.

The airframe is too crumpled up but the tire looks like a Nieuport 17 tire. Although this is a complete guess, we don't have any other significant feature of the aircraft to compare, unfortunately At this point in the war, it was either a regular 17 (which fell victim easily to German aircraft) or a 17bis. Although I'm not sure which squadron was stationed near the fighting at this sector. In the rear of the photo it looks like the RAF roundel from the wing, it is bent up a bit but in the right section of the photo.

Does it match the size of 2nd class orders (do you have a second class to compare with?) ? This one to me looks more like a 3rd class dressed up as a 2nd. The 3rd has almost identical style stars, while 2nd class have a much nicer and polished look to the stars themselves. Another thing, anything of these orders has from what I've seen so far with the star, a "mini" star in the connecting points of the stars in the gilt. The enamel almost looks like a good coat of nailpolish vs enamel on this example in the photo. This example has something that just looks like lines attaching to the points in the center of the star. When you look at the star above the Flames, it also, appears not to be a star that is equal to each arm. All the examples I've seen of Yugoslavian Orders that are made have very sharp looking stars in this area. Do you have a full reverse of this order in a picture or two? I'll try to post some pics today to explain what I mean in these cases.

Sweet combo love it also when the colors match up so nicely on a bar

Very interesting thank you for sharing this one with us Radmilo The diamonds ruin the whole order a bit for me in this instance, make the eagle look a bit cartoonish

Looks similar to Cavalry/ Scout Imperial Russian Shoulder boards, although I like the design a lot I think the embroidery will be the key