Megan

The one depicted comes from La Gallerie Numismatique's catalogues (they have kindly given me free rein to use their pictures!) and went for ?500 at a sale held in November 2008.

Reverse: The text on the reverse reads "Great World War 1914-1917"

Established 1929 by White Russians in exile, from the legend on the reverse it applied to service during the Great War. Obverse:

As you probably know, I collect images and information rather than actual things. So far the images of Malawi medals displayed have been shared with me by a generous soul called Emmaneul Halleux, who watches what I'm up to on the website and invariably comes up with some pictures for me!

It's something that concerns me - if it LOOKS like a medal, it needs to recorded correctly so that future observers know what they are looking at. I have a (much-neglected) section on my site for such items, suppose I'd better set up a section for organisational awards as well - many of these are nationally-based (the French & the Belgiums seem particularly fond of 'em) so these may be best placed as clearly-demarked subsections of national sections.

Reverse:

Silver Jubilee of President Banda Medal 1991 Instituted: 1991. Awarded: To mark the 25th anniversary of Banda's self-appointment as Life President. Obverse:

Here's the Soviet version for comparison purposes:

Орден Ушакова Instituted: 3 March 1944 as an award of the USSR, confirmed in the current order of precedence on 20 March 1992. Awarded: To naval commanders for outstanding merit, in 2 classes plus a medal. The insignia is virtually the same as the USSR version, except the hammer & sickle has been removed. 1st Class:

Reverse:

Republic Medal 1966 Instituted 1966 to mark the establishment of the Republic of Malawi.

Reverse:

Nacala Campaign Medal 1988-93 Obverse:

Malawi Medal of Bravery Instituted: 1967. Awarded: For acts of great bravery.

Backups are vital. I have: - 1. Medal Archive - where 'raw' scans are filed according to a) where they came from and b) subdivided by country. 2. Medals - which is the fullsize images on black background, ordered by country. 3. Medals-Web - which is the local version of the full website with the reduced images as used there. Then there is the website itself on a remote server, and that gets backed up nightly. Hmm. Maybe I should burn off to DVD as well.... :)

Republic of Malawi Cross Instituted: 1967. Awarded: For eminent acts of valour, self-sacrifice or extreme devotion to duty.

Medal of the Order of the Lion:

Grand Officer Star:

Order of the Lion Instituted: 1967. Awarded: For distinguished and outstanding services to the people of Malawi. Grades: 5 (Grand Commander, Grand Officer, Commander, Officer and Member) plus a Medal. Here is the Grand Commander Star:

Yes - but the rest is very similar. That picture on my site has been there a VERY long time, not sure where it came from even (and I'm generally meticulous about sources, there's a big archive file on my hard drive with the original images filed under where I got 'em from, but it predates that!). Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the collar of the Order of Skandebeg It's all fascinating though, and worth exploring further.

Isn't Arton Lame's picture a better version of the b&w one on my site?

Official Russian award site - http://award.adm.gov.ru/orden/orden_14.htm

Inclined to agree... Interestingly it's the only 'new' award that comes in the Soviet style of a pin-on breast badge (although they hung onto a few of the old ones with the red stars, hammers & sickles etc. ripped off). Hopefully they'll ditch it.

Here's the Soviet version for comparison:

Government one. But that does not guarantee that they'll design things to your taste...