hunyadi

Zsolt - do you have any information on this badge - date of insitution, what the worker needed to do to get it, penz jutalom?

my guess still remaines that it was for the Hungarian Peoples Republic Order of the Flag 5th Class.

Here is a line up of three - notice the different styles of wreath attachment here - on the far left the wreath is attached with stamped metal 'prongs' while the one with the wound strips is attached with fine rivets. The center IInd class has the wreath soldered on the front - but also this variant is without the institution date that is normaly stamped into the reverse (1941)

Just to bring an old thread up to speed - I have found a couple of Fire Crosses lately and I wanted to post them to show the various types and construction methods. Left one is a Fire Cross II Class (wreath / w/o swords) - these are hard to find as they were awarded for soldiers serving in the rear areas of a combat zone - the Right one is a Fire Cross I Class (wreath w/ swords) and was awarded for serving in a direct front line combat situation - also it has two 5mm wide aluminum strips which indicate the Fire Cross was also awarded for two wounds. As for construction - notice (faintly) how the wreath is soldered on the IInd Class and also how the suspension ring is different between the two.

Need to take a nap before posting - I was actually looking at another badge (a light industry one) when I wrote that! Yes you are right! The box is very interesting as generally one finds the Hungarian People's Republic Coat of Arms (1949 or 1957 version) or simply without an embossed logo. This was my main purpose for posting. Is this the symbol of the Craftsmans Cooperative? To me it looks like a star at the top of a wreath with some sort of 'banner' at the bottom. In the center it looks like an upraised hand that is holding something (???) - perhaps a hammer? Also - cant find anything about it in any of my referneces.

Picked this one up the other day - "Excelent Light Industry Worker"

It may be a bit "mis-measured" - the other thing I notice about this box is that there was probably never a medal in it. Look at the indentation on the lid - its a direct reverse. Its been empty for a long time. Probably a box that MAP had left over and sold out.

Secondly is the poshumious award given to family members of those who gave their lives during the revolution. The only difference from the veterans medal is the black dominaint ribbon - officialy only 1200 were issued of this type

Here is a set I have been meaning to have the time a photgraph. These were issued to veterans of the 1956 Revolution (Oct 23rd to November 4th, 1956) Two types were issued to indiviudals who could provide some form of proof (documents or eye-witnesses). This is the Veterans Medal and was officialy issued to 6600 individuals.

Judging from the shape and the colors (deep red wine color and the rounded edges) I would say that its for one of the higher state awards. Can you give a photo of the bottom and the top of the box. That can add some clues as to when it was made. Looking at the "Large Hungarian Medals Book" I would guess that it housed the Hungarian Peoples Republic Order of the Flag 5th Class as this order was 50mm in diameter. None of the other ODMs of the period are that large and suspended by a trifold. This order was instituted in 1963 and was awarded 19 times

As there are several varieties out there - the one on the left is what I like to see more often - this is a 'high hook' as I like to call them. The point of the ribbon ends a little higher than the modern replacements. The hook has about 5-7mm of wire before it gets to the elbow. Sometimes the sewing eylets are sewn on the outside - like the one shown (perhaps after they broke off?) and more often they are sewn on the inside of the point. These types of ribbons I find mostly on the pre 1916 issue medals. I dont see them often on the Karoly medals. The replacement ribbons are getting better as they sometimes use old stock ribbon and then put newer hardware on them. Things to look for in the new replacements are: No 'high hook' styles. The hardware is 90% of the time made of shiny brass material with the eylet for the hook being of crude quality - it looks good - but when you compare them to original...Post war ribbons (1918-1945) appear with brass hardware, steel hardware, enamel coated eylets, brass eyelets - again - quality is the thing to look for. About 6 months ago I found some replacement ribbons that had painted enamel eyelets...

WOW - are these yours? These are super rare to find.

This is on the back of one of the other books - it give the details of where to find the bookstore. These little booklets are interesitng as they were printed in the USA by a chapter of the Communist Party in the USA (I would guess) for Hungarians. The bookstore is never refered to as an English name - "A MUNKAS" (the Worker) so my suspicion would be that the sign out front was in Hungarian. Another speculation is if someone from the Bela Kun - Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919 - who escpaed Horhty and the National Army, went to America to continue the fight (many of teh Kun government fled to the safe havens of Moscow during that time)

here is anohter one "Socialism or Capitalism" -

In one of my treks to the local antique book store, I like to look for the little propoganda booklets that were handed out to the workers. What I found one time was some very interesing items. These books date from the 1920's - but that is just a rough guess as there is no publishing date (they were timeless??) This one is a more disturbing one for me - "the Religion of Capitalism", the book speaks of the Christian faith as a propogator of such evil...

My favorite part - medals that can be worn on the uniform. The text speaks of 'many capitalist medals of Hungary' (of which some were still legal to be worn, but obviously not encouraged) the text says that the two main items that can be worn are the Order of Merit of Hungarian Freedom and the Excelent Workers Badge. Other badges could be worn - but only those that recognised the workers struggle for production.

A diagram of all the badges and regalia and where it goes on the uniform.

Uniforms for men and women

build uo the Workers Party! For those of you who dont know - the photo is of Matyas Rakosi the "Little Stalin" of Hungary from 1949-1956. For kicks you can listen to what the youth would sing about him... the video is satire as the kids are singing about 'Thank You Comrade Rakosi! You bring us goodies to eat, the railroad, lots of money, flowers bloom wherever you walk, etc..." http://youtube.com/watch?v=MYGhcYJYtzU

read Lennin and Marx young men and women

the organization had twelve points 1) Love of the Fahterland and its People 2) Fight for the Class Struggle 3) Work to help the Socialist Plan 4) Study technical subjects 5) Be politicaly clean by reading Marx and Lennin 6) Be brave and happy, conciencious and sure 7) Stand firm in the building of socialism, never to go back! 8) Fight for a world of democarcy! Just like the Heros of the Soviet youth 9) Build up the Hungarain youth, to strenghten the associaiton of the workers and peasants 10) Ensure a healthy building of the culture 11) Awake the Hungarian Republic so that the people will have joy 12) And the most important: the Hungarian Workers Party (this is a really quick and dirty translation - but you get the idea)

Here is a nice little addition about a youth organization that I had not known about - but what caught my eye was the whole book is an overview of the organization and then - my favorite part - about the uniforms, badges and medals of the organization. A collectors dream!

Hi Gordon - you got them! Very nice - this is a tradition for those who complete their higher education for the miliary. These particular stars are silver so they would be given out to an NCO when he completed his education at one of the NCO Accademies. If they had gold colored stars then they would have graduated from one of the officer schools. These would be presented before the August 20th event when these men and women would be sworn into the Honved. Today the tradition continues as my dear friend from the Border Guards gave me his set (six pointed stars) on the day he graduated as he said "I would cherish the boxed set more than he would". I do - sorry - but I cherished them so much that I put them in safe storage back in 2004....

Was it a monday, wednesday, or friday afternoon and the pub just opened? My later numbered minni (#6301) is engraved below the pin.

The picture in post #14 is what was handed out for a period of serivce prior to 1964. Though it was up to the commanindg officer to recomend you for one - so not everyone got one automaticaly after serving a specific ammount of time.