hunyadi

#73 Summer Uniform (variant #2)

#74 Womens Summer Uniform

#71 Seasonal Walking Out Uniform

#72 Summer Uniform (variant #1)

#69 Winter variation (cap)

#70 Winter variation (peaked cap)

#67 Summer Uniform

#68 Rain Cape Uniform

No one? Not even a stab?

In my hot little hands is a nice 'top secret' handbook that I found for the Munkasor. Published in 1979, so there may have been more upgrades / variants previously and after the publication. But it can give an idea of the uniform styles.

#65 is the Winter Uniform

#66 is the Seasonal Walking Out Uniform

Nice one! I would possibly gather that perhaps there was a manufacuture stamp at one point, but perhaps it washed off. Probably was in red ink and may have been stamped along the button seam. I would still say its from the mid 1970's to the 80's. as an educated guess.

I'm gonna post a thread on the various tunics that I have scaned from my 'top secret' book...

I have noticed with many folks who are making money off of us, that they dont pay too close attention to the details. Too many times they look at you with a strange look when you point out that you have more information than they have. But in the end of the transations (or lack of one) they are just happy to go and buy bread at the end of the day. Its a factor of Dealer vs. Hitsorian, Collector, Researcher. I have gotten some rather nice cases (and rare ones) misfitted with wrong medals for 'songs' in the past.

'Marble' variant scuff plate (there are about five othe types of 'marble' that were used)

This case is a good reference of the 'standard' sized case 140mm X 85mm X 23mm

Interior - this one does have a small recess for the ribbon, but not all of them came with that feature

Sure! Case top:

Mine has the 'tartan' pattern scuff plate

Recessd slot for the pin mounted below the recess for the medal

Nice medal! Howver the case is for a different medal! Not a big problem - the case is for the Commemorative Medal of the Soviet Republic 1959 (&1969). They made these caese special as the mini for the medal was not a ribbon, but a pin. The little slot in the base is for the pin. The cases for these are one of the few 'specific' to medals. Things to note when recognizing the cases for the 1959 medal is 1) 'embossed rectangle around the top of the lid. 2) the special slot for the pin mounted below the recess for the medal - on the 'standard box', the place for the ribbon bar is always above the medal 3) early aligator, marble, or tartan pattern scuff plates on the bottom of the case

Embossed rectangle on the top of the lid -

Nice passport - to complete your collection you need to get a blue passport. Any Hungarian citizen could apply for a red covered passport in which you could travel to any of the Warsaw Pact nations. I have some which have Jugoslavia on the stamp for nations that you could travel to - but the 'Jugoslavia' was crossed out. Blue passports were the ones for 'special' indiviudals whou could travel to the West. They could alos apply for $50 US Dollars to take with them as the Hungarian Forint could not be exchanged for currency in the west. It made for short trips unless you had family in the place you were going - but then people might be following....

Your wish is my command -

Who am I and what did I do?

Only hint: I ran a group of boys...

Its coming - and with no help like the last time!

So . . . how does one fly CHEAP to Bupapest . . . ????????????????????

Truly - cheapseats.com

Best time to come is for the weekend of the first Saturday of the month. PM me and I will gladly take anyone to the local shops on Thursday and Friday, Militaria Show on Saturday, flea market Sunday, Coin Show on Tuesday. Fly back on Wednesday a happy camper!

Dont have many photos of the flea market - just this small selection that I found one day - there was more!!!

The "thud" you heard in Budapest just now is my jaw hitting the floor. Amazing -beautiful, wonderful place. You guys are lucky beyond words.

The flea markets are better!

From what I could gather - its the sweat shield - not band (sorry!) which you indicated it never had. The cap continued to be used for quite a while - the regulations called for the sweat shield type to be removed from service in 1953, but the ones manufactured after 1951 did not have the feature. So apparently from 1949 to 1951 these were manufacutred with the shield and according to the regulation the shileld was made of felt. ?

The glass toped counter on the right is full of a few over prices original medals and lots of poor copies.

Though its not alwyas a great place to find little treasures, its not as bad as it seems - one time I picked this up for a realy good price....

According to regulation 2.784 / Htpszf. Hbs. Csf. Szerv - 1951. The peaked cap or 'plate cap' (in Hungarian) the sweat band was to be removed and replaced with a canvas strip. Those caps with the sweat band were to be discarded by December 31st, 1953. The 'new' cap without the sweat band was to be known as the M51 Peaked Cap. Just in case anyone was interested.....

To add to my pile of interesting and rare - I picked this one up lately. According to my literature is the 'Excelent Platoon Leaders Badge' designated for the recon troops. (Paratrooper Special Forces type!) Also acording to the literature it was only awarded between 1954 and 1957. The ones with the Rakosi coat of arms are rare, but this is the 1957 version, only awarded and manufactured for one year.

About four months ago I was at the show and a guy showed up at one of the tables and produced a binder with a board of these. Types that I had never seen nor knew existed. Almost all of these had a larger banner, enameled wreaths, etc... My mouth watered (and so did others who saw them!) When I asked if any were for sale - he ed, since then I have only found this one at the coin show. They do not come up often, and till Zsolt can shed more light on them, I cant add anything!

Well - yes the star is the plastic type, but it was made without the loops (no scars of one being shaved off) When I looked at the other collectors collection there were silver metal and plastic types.