JimZ

Some really breathtaking stuff Stuart and such a lovely display. I however have a question for you as it does not appear your shelves have glass doors. How do you keep the feathery, furry and felt ones dust-free?

Moved in line with identification in post #3 Hope you get more info here Timo! Regards Jim :cheers:

Watching out not to use "fresh" wood. Its not only the possibility of leaking sap and oils but also the smell which these contain that may leave an odour on the display items. Also, and this is a given, make sure that fresh wood is properly treated as the last thing you would want to do is transport an army of unwanted visitors into your war rooms!!! Other than that I love the various solutions diplayed. Before I sold off my collection of helmets, I used to use industrial cardboard thread reels from a textile factory with a circule of foam as padding at the top. These reels are just like normal sewing thread reels only some 35 cms high tapered, thus giving a wider base for more stability. Similar to Stuart, I'd use off cuts of black material from the same factory which I would pin to the reel. The idea of sewing them neatly had never occurred to me - so much neater that way!! Well its too for that now!!!

Not if these are the medals of say two brothers.... Will wait to hear and see more - post the Austrian medals too - perhaps some one may have a few more pearls of wisdom to share with us all. Thanks Jeff. Jim :cheers:

Tried to do so online research but there really isn't much. Two references - I believe your medal would be the first one - merits - where there is no mention of class. However in the second one, there is a mention of three classes. Not much help I'm afraid! Scuole italiane all'estero Medaglia per meriti nelle scuole italiane all'estero (Regio Decreto ??? 1902) Medaglia di benemerenza per le scuole italiane all'estero (dal ??? al ???) (Regio Decreto ??? 1902). Istituita nelle classi d'oro, d'argento e di bronzo.

Hi Jeff, A lovely grouping of medals - Are they mounted on a bar or individually placed near each other? The last medal was awarded to the Madri e Vedove dei caduti and was instituted in 1919... the Italian victory medal was instituted in April 1922 and unless it was awarded posthumously.... I am not aware if this was the case. So I have a suspicion this might not be a group per se. Of course I stand to be corrected. Can you confirm whether the 3rd and 5th medals have the same obverse and reverse. Whereas I am familiar with the Medaglia Della Guerra 1915-1918 (medal #3) I do not know the fifth one and it looks like the same medal as #3 on the ribbon of the Medaglia per l'unita' d'Italia. Are they both "Coniata nel bronzo nemico" on the reverse? Could you attach close ups of obverse and reverse pls. What are the years on the bars on the Medaglia Della Guerra (#3) pls?

Pictures please Paul...of both cabinet and content :)

So long as the paper is acid-free paper there should be no problems arising from chemicals that could otherwise cause corrosion to the medal. Of course you must still be careful - in a humid environment, paper may retain humidity and this may cause other damage! Regards Jim :cheers:

What a very impressive group!

Was very sorry to have sold a grouping that belonged to my mother's uncle - even if I did not know the man and even if I made some excellent money out of it. Think twice about selling it as once its gone, it will be very hard to get it back... at least I knew the seller (even though it was an E-day sale and I was living in another country at the time) To the best of my knowledge, this group is still located some 3 Km away from where I am presently sitting down!! - but I still regret parting with it, particularly as it was fully documented to the menu of the dinner at the award ceremony and all possible newspaper cuttings...sigh!

Gentlemen...please... The turn that this thread is taking is pushing it in one direction. Jim :cheers:

Kev... are those painted or plastic coated...? Please put some info in the relevant posts letting us know what they are made of as you go along. Thanks! Jim :cheers:

When I started off this thread back in 2007 I had no clue as to what it would become..... Nor did I fully comprehend the sheer volume of material that this humble medal would generate. With 634 posts and just under 21,000 views, this is one of the most viewed threads on the forum, which shows not only the vast interest in the Victory Medals of the World but that this medal alone is an area of collection all to itself. Well done to all for your ongoing contributions. Jim :cheers:

I somehow would have seen real justice being carried out through a trial and execution rather than through assasination. Its not that I object to the latter, but it leaves too much room for speculation as to whether it was really Osama bin Laden who was killed. With Saddam Hussein, there was no doubt. Assuming he has succesfully been eliminated, I believe that it poses an even greater problem for the US as until yesterday, they knew exactly whom they were after. In fact they have known whom they were after for the last 10 years before being in a position to effectively do anything about it. Let alone the hundred or as Darrell suggests, the thousands who are ready to die for their cause. The US has sent a message - We will hunt you down and kill you. But are these not terrorists to whom life,including their own means nothing? How effective will such message be in the greater scheme of things. Mike makes a valid point about tackling the terrorism at its roots i.e. at financing level. This is much harder to do and for every money laundering scheme that is dealt with, there are probably several more intellegent schemes that remain completely undetected. A victory against terrorism - most definitely. But regrettably, it will probably be rather short lived. NOTE: This thread will probably verge on the political - so lets try to keep it as clean as possible as it will otherwise be rightfully locked down by the admin.

5461 is the serial number which is what makes the order researchable. 638 is just a makers mark on the screwpost. This variation is one of the earlier awards, refer to the range mentioned above, and not the most readily available variation of the Order of Lenin.

Ah, the holy laws of supply and demand!! Higher silver prices will lead to more medals being scrapped for their weight in silver. This reduces the supply of an already finite supply. As supplies decrease prices will increase. This will in turn make the medals more desirable and demand will increase, pushing prices further up. This would not only effect British medals but any silver and (presently to a lesser extent gold medals). Take soviet ones, for example with several medals and orders being silver and/or gold. The Order of Lenin was manufactured out of gold and platinum, and has already fallen prey in past, to unscrupulous dentists who could use the base metal for golden fillings as it made excellent dental grade gold! I could not believe this when I heard it ! However, with the increase in the price of silver presently outperforming that of gold, it is the silver medal that may be mostly at risk. Goes to show the vision of the Prussians in 1813 when they placed an iron core inside the iron cross. :whistle:

Saw Chris posting and I held back hoping he'd have an answer. I too googled and yahooed and tried every trick I knew with the search engines. I was stumped by the little information was available. I sas also surprised to see how many un-official SAS fan sites there are, but still I came across nothing that was of any help with this.

Cannot see what's what Windu! And I doubt anyone can help you much with that quality of "scan". Try a flat bed scanner or if its a camera, then try to focus. I'd half say that was a pic taken a low res webcam or a mobile phone :)

Windu, If Indonesia is as bad as Singapore was when I went there its hardly surprising that humidity may cause damage. I once noticed pitting on the surface of some guns in a collection - the culprit - displaying these high up in a room with limestone walls. The accumulation of dust from the walls and other normal dust on the top of the barrel trapped some humidity which led to this corrosion on the exposed parts of the gun. As for your EKs, you can never determine what's trigerring it off - it may partially be the grade of the iron used but I'd say that more importantly, it is what the medal was exposed to before it came into your possession (assuming that you are taking all necessary precautions). Take for example prolonged exposure to humidity or to sea air, physical damage to the core of the medal itself, or the cleaning of the medal with chemicals trapping some of these under the silver frame....just as some ideas off the top of my head. Will look forward to the scans. Jim :cheers:

Yes, sewing machine oil works very well.... I had an old bottle of Singer oil that did the trick just as well. Its also important that the oil is clear machine oils and the finer/thiner it is the better - which is why i suggested gun oil. A drop or two will probably be all you need.

I would initially try a light coating of gun oil on the iron core to see if it helps. Of course this depends on the degree of corrosion. In doing so do make sure that you protect the ribbon as oil and ribbons are not the best of friends. Maybe you may want to wait for other suggestions before you try this. All I can say is that I had applied this treatment to steel helmets and it seemed to work wonders - never quite tried it on a medal though as I do not have too many iron medals!!...just a handful of EK's that seemed to be doing fine (last time I checked). Can you post a scan??

"LIQUIDATORS" insignia - The "LIQUIDATORS" is a collective name for Soviet firefighters, military, search & rescue, police, emergency situation ministry, civil defense personal and many other ordinary heroes- all participants in The Clean Up OPERATION of CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR POWER STATION DISASTER. Russian text says: "The participant of liquidation of consequences of failure on an atomic power station" [uchastnik Likvidatzii Posledstviy Avarii na AES]. Len.VO abbreviation on the top means Leningrad Military District. "CHERNOBYL" in Russian below. Not sure why the order of Lenin is there. I remember reading that the plant was scheduled to be awarded the Order of Lenin just a few days after the meltdown but am unsure if this was the case following the accident.A bit of online research reveals this award may have been reserved to the first liquidators and to liquidators who were members of the communist party. Hope this helps.

Throw an iron cross into a pile of militaria and its bound to be the single item that really stands out! ..or maybe that's just me.. Show more pics of the sword please.

Throw an iron cross into a pile of militaria and its bound to be the single item that really stands out! ..or maybe that's just me.. Show more pics of the sword please.

As always buy the item, not the story. Now.... somewhere I had a packet of smokes that belonged to Stalin himself...... !!!