Megan

A nice start. Check out the relevant sections of my website and the OMSA website's Images area to find out more details about your haul.

I'm sneaky. I bookmark good threads about specific nations' medals (along with stuff found elsewhere) via my browser, so it's easy to pull up useful items when needed Hope you find something of use in there, both of you.

Soldier magazie (July issue) reoirts that this award will be distrubuted 'by the end of the summer'... the veteran's section of the armed forces website says Autumn 2023 but they are accepting applications now. The form is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/applying-for-medals It will be called the Nuclear Test Veterans Commemorative Medal. Still no indication of what the thing looks like!

I'm hunting for them as well

Ilya has some information here: http://wawards.org/en/rwanda.html

Start with this thread: Online, there are a fair few on my website, https://medals.org.uk/germany/ddr/ddr-text.htm The OMSA Medals Database has a good array too.

Correct. Put simply: Orders and decorations in order of precedence. Military Active Service (may be UK, UN or NATO) in order of award. Royal Commemoratives in date order, oldest first. Long service medals (military, then emergency service).

Enamelled blue crosses with maple leaves are ribbon ornaments for the Order of Military Merit or the Order of Merit of the Polics Forces (both Canada, of course). The red leaf is for the Class 1/Commander, a gold one for Class 2/Officer, and the silver one for Class 3/Member. The number 8 is probably the ribbon bar ornament for the Africa Star, to denote award of the 8th Army bar. A silver maple leaf on its own could be the ribbon bar ornament for the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal (WW2), indicating overseas service.

Fascinating collection, thank you all for sharing. It's interesting how different Royal Families choose to issue medals. In the UK, it's only for events connected with the reign (Coronations and selected Jubilees), but with massive issue of those medals that they have. Some Scandinavians sitick to personal milestones (birthdays and weddings in the main, also some deaths). The Danes have the best of both worlds, whatever's going on in the Royal Family there's a medal for it, which they keep affordable by only awarding a few of each one.

It's the Medal "For the Defence of Ukraine" (Медаль "За оборону України") and does come in military and civilian versions. The military one has a ribbon described as dark green with a maroon central stripe and the civilian one has a grey ribbon with a maroon central stripe. It was instituted on 5 August 2022 (Decree of the President of Ukraine dated 5 August 2022 No. 559/2022 "On the award of the President of Ukraine "For the Defence of Ukraine"") and is awarded for self-sacrifice and significant personal contributions to strengthening the defence of Ukraine, the protection of the safety of the population and the interests of the state in connection with the large-scale armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. The illustration attached to the Decree shows the grey to be quite dark, so this may be an artefact of production.

Looking good, Owain. My notes (the properly organised written up ones) have only reached 21 pages. Curse the marking monster, it might be bigger if I didn't have papers to grade.... Bacl to work now

Nice analysis, Yuri. The imagery of medals popping up like mushrooms after the rain is quite apt!

Will there be a PDF/Print-on-demand version available? Protects against going out of print and is more accessible,

Still trying to track down all these Albanian laws... and then find the time to translate them. GRRR. Marking season. Must get back to the pile of papers.

Correct, I found that it wasn't actually available either. Most frustrating. GRRRR.

Ah, right I see. Thank you, Zaim.

Magic. So, Naim Frashëri Order was instituted 1996 as a single class order, then expanded to 2 classes in 2013, Zaim. Do let us know when your book comes out, it looks like it will be very useful.

Another of the city/regional awards. I would think. Thank you for sharing... and good to see that you are still around, Ura87.

Ah, so it does have a 2nd class.... interesting. Any documentation on that, Antonio? Where did you find the badges?

Urdhri Naim Frashëri appears to be awarded in a single class now, it was a 3-class order when instituted in 1965 by the People's Republic.

Annoying, isn't it. Most are here: https://sq.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_e_dekoratave_në_Shqipëri But there are blank spaces for the 2 you are looking for. GRRRR.

And my butterfly mind has now alighted on Bangladesh, having noticed that I last visited that section of my website in 2002! Some useful stuff here, thank you gentlemen, but again it seems woefully undocumented! Let us try and change that!

Thanks, Lukasz. Looks like the King got his way, they estimate about 400,000 medaks will be awarded.

At last... Apologies for the poor image, it's what the "culture Secretary" put out on the gov.uk website. The obverse is a double portrait of King Charless III and Queen Camilla by Martin Jennings, the reverse is Charles' cypher and the date 6 MAY 2023 within a laurel wreath. The ribbon is dark blue with a white-edged red central stripe and narrow red edges. Distribution is to be to everyone actively contributing and supporting the Coronation on 6 May - including choristers, police officers, military personnel and St John Ambulance personnel - as well as those directly involved in the delivery of the Coronation. It will also be given to serving frontline members of the police, fire, emergency services, prison services and armed forces that have completed five full calendar years of service, and to holders of the Victoria Cross and George Cross.. It's being made by Worcestershire Medal Service Ltd in Birmingham. Now to go and search for a better image, a good enough one for my website

Spotted in the May 2023 issue of Soldier Magazine, the 'house rag' of the British Army. State Coats are the 'gold' ones worn by fanfare trumpeters, the mounted band of the Household Cavalry, and Foot Guards Drum Majors on State occasions. They are actually red velvet heavily embroidered with gold lace, so at a distance they look gold.