ilieff

Can you please quote which sources you have in mind? It's official that there's a short-lived first princely Ferdinand edition of the merit medal. It depicts the Monarch as a very young man (without beard) and features a tubular loop on the top of the medal. Photograph attached (can't remember the original source of the image). The two links you posted above point to two medals of the same issue (2nd princely issue), both with modern replica ribbons.

As mentioned above, due to the large number of bronze merit medals awarded, it's not that easy to determine the manufacturer. The founder of the dynasty, Ferdinand, was a great connoisseur and pedant when it comes to decorations. He was spending great amount of money from both national budget and his liste civile on manufacturing orders and medals. His son on the other hand, was more of a pragmatic type when it comes to this bit. He was using the orders and medal rationally and the spending for their production wasn't as great as before. Several instances confirm that. For example, the medal "For Incentive to Philanthropy" with the effigy of King Ferdinand has been used for decorating throughout the reign of Boris III, probably, due to the large numbers in stock at the Chancellery. Another example is the fact that the effigy of Boris III remains the same on all decorations - Order "For Merit", medals "For Merit' and "For Life-saving", i.e. no updating of the King's effigy even after the birth of the heir to the Throne. And third example could be the so called 'incorrect' emission which you mention above. It's quite wide spread, no matter the spelling error. I assume that the reasons for it to be mass awarded and not scrapped, were purely financial. Anyhow, the short answer to your question is: No, you cannot determine with certainty who the manufacturer of the medal actually was. You can only imply that it has been minted in Germany, as the majority of the other decorations of that period. Plus, you are aware that the ribbon on the above image is not genuine, right? PS: Technically, there's only one 'emission' of King Boris III merit medal.

Hi Graf, You are correct about the high quality of the badges of both Ferdinand I and Boris III. This order has only been bestowed upon (about) 60 people in total prior to 1946 and I don't think we can speak about emissions in the general term. According to the literature on this topic, two companies manufactures the order - Rothe&Neffe and Zimermann so most certainly there will be at least two variations in design. Not quite sure whether the non-enamelled reverse flames are a Celjavo feature but I don't think we'll know the correct answer, unless a full-scale research is made on this topic (which apparently is yet to be done as the Bulgarian authors have not settled on a single resolution on this matter). Regarding the above photographs, I believe that it's the other way round - the last two are of the period of Ferdinand I and the first is of Boris III issue. As I said, it's highly risky to label these badges with the usual term 'emission' as most of these have been produced one-at-a-time upon the request of the monarch. However, the example above bears the royal cypher of Ferdinand on its case, which speaks of the 1909-1918 period, but could well be of a later issue with a stock case from the chancellery. Regards,

A great 'Thank you!', 922F. That's the sort of information I was looking for. Much appreciated! By the way, are there any larger/better quality images around of the awards themselves? I am willing to add a photographic reference to my article. Regards, Yan

Hi Paul, Thank you for the photos, but I did not mean the Republican issues. I am well aware of these. I meant if there were any examples of orders which have been awarded by the Bulgarian King Simeon II while in exile in Egypt/Spain? By rule, he remains the grand master of the both SS Cyil and Methodius and St. Alexander orders and while for the former there are confirmed decorations, I could not track any of the latter. Cheers,

Hi all, I am a researcher on Bulgarian royal awards and I am currently trying to find any evidence of decorations with the Royal Order of Saint Alexander after the Communist coup in Bulgaria (Post 1947). I believe I've seen a photograph of examples which are believed to be such decorations but I can no longer find these in the forums. Plus, how plausible is it for these to have actually been bestowed upon? Thank you for your time. Regads, Yan