Rogi

999 is even better (maybe even 777 not sure :S) Thanks Auke for taking a look I'll have to play around with the zoom and camera to see if theres a loop in the lettering for the serial.

so I don't make another thread, thank you soo soo sooooo much to you guys at this forum and especially to Radmilo for the guidance for this order I picked it up today at the Ottawa Military Show, heres the link for pics of the show. Was such a wonderful time http://gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/58318-ottawa-military-heritage-show-2013/#entry542567 and heres the links to my first St. Sava With box The icon looks fantastic in person and my pictures don't do it justice.

I can't be happier, this year's Ottawa Military Show was fantastic So many cool vendors, lots of items and I was fortunate to pick this up, did I strike out or get a home run ? I think it looks great Thank you so much to Aurelius and the rest of the forum here for the help and guidance, as soon as I get some things settled It'll be off to the "Aukinator" for research If you guys want to see the full pictures of the show I posted it in the lounge, here: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/58318-ottawa-military-heritage-show-2013/#entry542567 Heres the Order of the Red Star I can't make out the number Closer: It looks like 1 649 776 for the serial which would make it possibly a "real award" from 1944-1945 Thanks all for checking in Regards, Igor

They have similarities, if you look at the Order of Natalie, this is a first class(I think ), courtesy of Radmilo If you reduce the class to 2nd or 3rd the medal loses certain aspects of the design (ie the wreath isn't flamboyant etc I'll post a pic) Heres the 2nd class, its from emedals, I wish I could afford to buy this one its pretty much tied for my fav. medal of all time Again it depends if there using cyrillic script or not, but when you look at the first pic. The N is the same font as your M, it doesn't mean its a king's order, it could be a queen's or motherhood award, representing a female that was active in the motherhood organisations.

It looks very similar to the Order of Natalie (my fav! ) If you compare the N in natalie it is the same style and font as this M order one here, the crown and basic outline is similar as well. It could be of a lesser class that it lacks the wreath, but who knows. Lots of principalities and countries shared designers if one liked someone else's styling

Wow shes a beauty, thank you Radmilo one day I'll own one Natalie hehe That Queen Draga on the bay, looks pretty small to command such a high price, she must be super rare

Thank you red and Norm for your comments and well wishes I too hope 1 or 2 Red stars will be able to fall into my lap, heck sometimes you end up picking up an award or order no one knows about (I had the luck in picking up a couple Yugoslavian cap badges for cents when I was at a antique market a couple years ago, maybe something like that will happen this year ) I just hate the waiting and not knowing what will pop up, but thats half the fun I guess I'm still holding out that the russian seller from 10 years back will be at this year's show. It would be amazing if hes still around and still has reasonable prices like before, but time will tell Whatever I find (or don't find :S) I'll fill you guys in its all luck in the end anyway. I'll keep you posted

+1 looks nice

So its almost a week till the Militaria show here in my town anyone have any tips on buying from the shows? (is it possible to haggle with these sellers, bundle or not to bundle, or is it rock hard prices :S) I'll probobly be aiming for some of the enameled awards, Red Stars, Order of the Great Patriotic war etc

Any Order of Natalie pics? I love that order

Very cool, thanks for sharing

Thanks for posting, still even with the screw like that, the enamel looks nice (is it the original enamel?) looks way too perfect and if the screw had broken, might of become damaged?

Wow, thats a dream medical award right there very excellent write up Thanks for posting The Aukinator has been having some awesome finds

I'd have to say Leningrad might be the most frequent for awards? Since it did last a pretty long time, but then again it depends on how many brave acts were done in a specific place and awards handed out I would have to say that most of the time and with this vast amount of awards being handed out in total, its pretty hard to actually get something from other battles and usually what I see with some award write ups is the individual is attached to a certain division that fought at the pivitol battles or are assigned to such front, but the location of the action is hidden, maybe in case the citation fell into the wrong hands, or the action associated is more important than the place? Its still cool to get any kind of combat write up in my opinion, although I'm very partial to Leningrad awards In terms of rarity, I'd love to see an award for mobilization of arms, an aircraft design award or tank award etc those would be pretty interesting

Low number, or maybe a combo of low number and someone has its document/case that drove the price? I've seen it happen on relatively inexpensive medals too Sometimes you have to have it

I kind of like the unknown factor, but I'd prefer a unknown with a reason "ie in whatever archive" etc it would make it a bit more bearable than waiting like 10 years and figuring out the record is lost for ever :S

Thats horrible news My blessings to you and your family, although we've taken lots of advances in the fight with cancer it still isn't there yet for some forms, and other times its the time when it is initially diagnosed, the earlier diagnosis the easier it is to battle. I am sure he is at peace now, and that he has no more hardship in the Kingdom of Heaven No matter what religion you beleive in, be it Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or others, we all seem to have universal beliefs in a better place or an afterlife, whichever place you beleive in, I'm sure hes residing and enjoying his life there. With Regards, Igor

Serbian, Croatian, Romanian, Hungary (Husarenregiment Graf von Hadik Nr. 3) They look similar to me: http://ww1photographs.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/austrian-group.jpg?w=620 I'll try to grab some other pics

Just a +1 and a small addition. Sometimes in the service record as stated, the picture is missing in the officer's file, most likley it could have fallen off, or been lifted off of the file at an earlier date.

St. Sava is fantastic too But I always think of my top 2 orders owning would be the St. Sava and Russia's St. Anne probobly the most beautiful award outside of Serbia that I absolutley would love to own (but probobly can't afford atm, even the civilian version! )

Crys** I'm with you on this one, why destroy a perfectly good award just to check if its a maker's mark it'd probobly be easier to re-make the enamel in a lab test with other material, come on people Red Jello air bubble test! hehehe At least now we know and no more awards will be put to rest :(They must of had a pretty disapointing write up

Aye this ones a winner in the looks category

Aye I hope they realise I mean it with love for him, because there are much better portraits out there

Definatley not the front especially when its an award for art, culture,education,humanities, literature, could of at least put a better image of him on it I do like the reverse with his signature

Since Canada is my home and my origin is from Europe, I think I have some experience to comment the good and bad of design (St Sava being one of the most beautiful medals my origin from Serbia has done) hehehe I'm talking from experience ! Canada has some of the worst coin and medal designs in history lol but also some of the most beautiful. Therefore, we know what is hit or miss, low mintage doesn't mean people will end up collecting it if its ugly. Then again, The Maple leaf is a nice symbol on a coin. I've never seen a puck on a coin without being accompanied by the hockey stick There are some hits and misses in medal design but the Pushkin design that was commented on certainly isnt a hit yet to some it might be, something odd and strange in design is sometimes desirable to other, I love my Omega PloProf, but others hate it. Its hard to comment on something and say you don't like it when its from your country of origin I guess the Pushkin could be one of these. We have to look on the bright side, at least no one has chosen a lot of Abstract design on a medal or coin lol one that is brought to mind is that strange "Voice of Fire" in our National Art Gallery, that is just a huge line down the center of the canvas (blue,red,blue in it's colors), crazy something you, or I, or the kids can do can fetch 1.8mil "Voice of Fire", theres a reason theres only 1 of these types of artists out there. Its an odd painting yet makes you think and discuss all the same time At least the Canadian Olympic medals for Vancouver looked nice in their abstract form, trying to evoke a new design.