orden_master

Here is a set of 2nd class, Grand Officer of the order of Danilo. this set is made in Russia and both items have the cyrillic punchmarks IO = Igor Ozeretski Regards Milan

Hello Dave, Hello Igor nice commander of Danilo, verry well preserved. Most Montenegrin orders are pretty worn as it is told that a decorated Montenegrin takes off his orders by the end of the day and puts them to his pyjama ! Looking at the pictures without looking at the punch marks I would say that this is most probably a Austrian (Vincent Mayer&sons) work. French producers, mainly Arthus Bertrand have not made any punchmarks on the suspension loop. Best regards Milan

Hello Miguel maybe you have seen already other items also without crown on my own website and on our Yahoo Group (by the way your email is not working on yahoo) This is a variant and has no special significance. Almost all items that I have seen without crown are Franch production. You item is most probably Lemaitre. Lemaitre's items are ALL without crown. There are also few Russian made orders which also have no crown. IMHO are Lemaitres pieces the most beautifully made Danilos. Best regards and hope to see you back to the group Milan

Hello Waldemar I had the oportunity to hold at least 12 different items in my hands and none of them had genuine stones. If there has been a couple of items with genuine stones then they have been awarded to "special" friends. Maybe we should check the one which was awarded to Ceausescu. AS Anatoly stated already I think that due to a high grade of "real" manual work you will find slight diferences in almost all of the 114 issued pieces. Or how I like to say one was made by Mike on monday and the next one is out of the hands of George who had a real bad night the day before. Keep the work going it looks perfect ! Regards Milan

AS far as I can translate it would say Sabor = Meting Arhijer = archbishop ??? za ratno = for wartime pastirstvo = pastoring My own interpretation archbishop meeting for war time pastoring Looking forward for more infos to dicover. Best regards Milan

I also would like to adress a very warm and happy wish for christmas eve and for the christmas day of tomorrow. As all orthodox will say tomorrow: XRICTOC CE PODI ! Christ is born ! A very happy christmas ! Milan

Hi Bryan its a odd storry with ALL Yugoslavian orders which have been numbered. The consitency in the numbering was not upheld very much. The same with the numbering in documents. As evrything was "federalistic" I think that there have been too many cooks cooking togheter and there was not only one issuing authority. Ther was only one aproving authority and the rest was bureaucracy and paperwork. The result was that with the years passing by almost all orders lost their numbering and the awarding was on almost all orders without numbers (on the items). Best regards Milan

Hi Andy this is one of the best looking awards ! Congrats for this buy !! Hope to see you soon in Belgrade

Thanks Jim, now the thread is on the right place. and here it's the reverse Regards Milan

Here is mine with the according original box !!

Absolutely correct !!

OOoops ! just get councious that I have not posted and reverse side pictures, SORRY! Have to to that soon ! Milan

Some more pictures are in my Takovo cross section of my website ! regards Milan

Hi Jim sorry was a couple of days offline. Heres a pic of the reverse regards Milan

Very common medal as you translated perfectly given for success in pre-military training in schools and universitys. The medal exists in two variants. I will have to look up for more details. Regards Milan

Hello mostly all "normal" delivered pieces have synthetic stones mounted, there have been a couple of "special" issues delivered on even more special occasions for the special friends of Tito. OK ok, no more jokes, there is absolutely no evidence of how many items have been manufactured with real stones, altough the institutional description of mostly all orders speaks of real stones the main issues have all been with synthetic stones made. I have seen in all the years only one first class with real stones which was given to one of Titos close "compadres" in the Yu- communist party. You can always ask for a geological proof which is probably to expensive (IMHO). Best regards Milan

Hello Christian hr should be already at home and he is recovering pretty good and fast. I will have contact with him this weekend and post you the latest news regards Milan

Perfect explanation William, thanks a lot. I was waiting how long it will take until somebody remarks the difference and unfortunately it happened exactly during my hollidays when I have not got any internet access. Here a couple more details: Instituted by King Alexander I Karadjordjevic on 5th april 1930. The exact description of the order is without the green oak laurel wreath. It was even published in newspapers and weekly magazines of the period. It was alos there that the look of the order was discussed and that it went realized the the order does not "present" enough as he is too near the neck cravat and almost disapears under the collars of the uniform or suit. It was the changement of the institutional document on 15. november 1930 that the laurel wreath was added to the order. This changment was easy to accomplish as it implicated onle the mounting of the laurel through the existing hole on the upper corner-ball of the orders cross. Many of the already awarded items in the short 6 month period have been changed to the new look. The order chancellery changed all theri stock. So the first type is VERY rare to find and in the same manner VERY easy to fake. The only 100% thing are the first type boxes as they had no indentation for the laurel. I was lucky to find a I class case a III class and a V class with the according items. Here a pic for ilustrating: regards Milan

Hello William I think that I have found something for you, please have a look at ebay under 200162999386 . Just in case if you go for the bid, I know the seller and he is OK, so bid with confidence. Regards Milan

I have found also a picture of the wooden model which was used in the process of manufacturing the original gold sign . Look at the richness in detail of this work cheers Milan

finally I found a couple of minutes and the right book to take the scan! So here we go Enjoy !! best regards Milan

why ?

Hello dear collecting friends sorry for the delay in answering, I was sunbathing in Tunisia and swimming in the sea, air temp 30 water 29. It was marvelous OK that was definitely back to serious things This is not an Arabic order this is a YU order, or better told it's not an order it's a sign. It's called the Marshalls sign (marsalov znak). It was made only for Tito. And the first example was entirely made of pure gold it was weighting 1.5 kg and it was ruining his uniforms in the way that they made another one which was hollow and far lighter in weight. Its one of the most beautiful phaleristic works ever made IMHO. I should have a pic somewhere but will have to look ...... and post. Regards Milan

Thanks Ed, I am sure that he will be very happy when I bring him all the wishes from here ! He likes very much to hear what is going on on the Internet. Regards Milan

Dear friends last week during the presentation of new medals and coins in the rooms of the National Bank in Belgrade our friend Ranko Mandic suffered from a cardiac arrest. Fortunately the present security reacted perfectly and very proffesionally, the more than fast arriving medics from the emergenca hospital reached to reanimate and stibilize the patient and to bring him to intensive care to the nearby hospital. Ranko is on the best way to get back to normal and I wish him all the best he can get. ( I had him on the phone already and he is feeling fine) The article about this incident can be find in the archives of the "Vecernje Novosti" (sorry I have no link) Best regards Milan