hunyadi

and the makers mark

Hi Kevin -

IMHO both are original pieces - I just feel from my observation experience that the BRONZE and BRONZ (hungarian version) marked ones are from the 1920's as Horthy's Government had a requirement that all plated medals be stamped with an indication of the base medal (except for Zinc it seems). The Large Silver Bravery Medal will probably have some sort of makers mark around the 11 or 1 o'clock position. Mostly I see a small encirceld "A". Another interesting factor that collectors seem to notice is the thin design of the medal as well. The ring on your Large Bravery has probably been replaced as such a small ring would dangle out of the bottom of the ribbon - not a tradition of the A-H armies. Here is mine for reference

Though others may have more concrete information - I have hardly seen the "Bronze" stamp on the FJ period medals. However the Karl era and the post war all seem to have them. I think there was a law that required the makers to state what the base medal was made of somewehre near the end of the war. Perhaps these few pieces that I have observed are inter-war re-strikes. But that is mostly just specualtion.

I am still chomping on the bit for any more understanding - information here> Jeff??????

Does anyone know what the patch is??? Still a great lot of photos!

Here is also a medal for the culmination of his work in the 1970's Order of Labor in Silver Grade. More to come - including a full history of the man, his medals and the reasons behind his faithfulness and devotion to the Hungarian Communist Party - you may be interestinly surprised.

Here is his 20 years of service to the Hungarian Communist Workers Party. It is hard to express the detail of the printing on this document - it is absolutly beautiful!

secondly the most difficult to find - the 'formal' document hand signed by Janos Kadar the Hungarian Premier until the 1970's.

As I was on vacation - I was unable to post a most interesting lot that I have come across. I wanted to post this on Oct 23rd in memory of the 1956 revolution - but I am a day late.

This is the lot of Dr. Simon (as he is still living I have edited the name). He was one of the individuals to be awarded the Return of Power to the Pesants and Workers medal in 1957. The story is far from that simple and I am still doing interviews with him and research to get a full story of a rather simple man who was heavily decorated for his service to the Hungarian People's Republic. I am only going to post a small portion of his decorations now - but more - oh! much more is to come!

First off is the difficult to find 'carrying' document for the medal

here is my one example - what strikes me about these pieces (though of later design) is the quality!

Rick I hope to not offend by posting a detail from your photo. (I will remove it without question if you want) I have to point out a detail that I find most amazing about these pieces. From a construction stand point - I understand that on many EK's the Swas and the dates are 'beveled' so that they drop out of the die nicely. (mass production) However with these and some other makers that releif of the swas and the dates is nearly vertical. making it not so easy to get the core out of the die - more hand made quality to me. I like the sharp edges - like you could cut your finger on them. Just pure quality.

very nice piece - though it is well known that ribbons can be changed - the true historical value is in the ribbon. Still - a very nice piece - esp. that mini!

Hi Gordon -

On vacation right now so I cant post any photos - but here is what I know - the military accademy that officers attended was the ZRYNI KATONAI ACADEMIA. Its written on a silver plate just below the red star. Other ones that are encountered will be for technical schools and the miiltary high schools. But for aspiring offciers it was ZRYNI.

Very nice Rick - I ahve always sought one of these. Can you post some detailed shots of the swas, date and any die flaws? I dont think there has been too much serious discussion on these - perhaps becasue of its rarity?

.....as soon as i can afford it. Just got a fat research-bill, which means, no purchases the next months

So I take it you are blaming me for this?

Those Red Stars look better in your collection than mine! But you better make a nice one for the Magyar Nepkoztarsasag...

Hello all - here is a little tid-bit that was recently aquired. Albeit without the school badge (upper left) and the medal bar. (but it has the loops to mount one) Its a mid-late 1960's offciers dress uniform.

Here is an interesting photo that I got for a little pocket change. I dont know soviet stuff so someone might be able to tell me who and what branch they belong to. What interested me was the OGPW first style (I did know that much) and then fact that the postcard was made in Hungary shortly after the war. Its been framed for quite a long time, I did not take the photo out of the frame. She has a badge on her upper right chest - dont know what that is for? Any idea on rank? Service?

Very nice examples Dave! Where did you aquire them if I may ask?

Also the back of the document is for recording wounds recieved - i.e. the silver wound bars.

Hi Dave -

Documents such as yours are hard to come by. I am not aware of any covers to protect these 'carrying documents'. You simply stuffed them in your military ID book. For the lower awawrds only a carrying document was issued. Only when you get into the offcier only awawrds do you begin to see the larger size 'displayable' award documents, but then only for the higher awards or promotions. Hungary was a 'poor nation' and most medals such as the fire cross, return of historical hungary medals, etc... didnt even come in a packet or a box to my knowledge. Officers who had the funds and the jewler that did them - would make boxes for you to put the medals in. Little while ago on Ebay there were some WW1 Hungarian commemorative medals in the boxes - reeeealllly rare! Other probelm with Hungarian items is the reprisals feared by the Hungarian soldiers. IN 1944 when Horthy was arrested and the Arrow Corss came to power, all your documents, military id's - everyting got an Arrow Cross stamp. The rumor (and true in many instances) was that the Soivets had an execute order for all Arrow Cross party members. Soldiers took a look at their documents with both the Royal Hungarian stamps and the new Arrow Cross stamps and then quickly burned them or buried them. In all my years here I have seen about a handful of documents for various grades. Ebay has been a better source as most of those are coming from veterans that made it to the west and then emigrated to Nothern America, West Germany, etc... I can only assume that you found this example in Romania - how I wish it could talk!

Great grouping of photos - last year I bought my first "supposed" HJ winter tunic. Has the red chords for a combat unit, loops for a flak badge, volkstrumm arm band and the residue for a patch in about the same location as the one in the photo. Several people looked at it and said it was original. I wish I had a photo of it but alas its in storage.... Anyhow - see the borrowed photo below to see what I am talking about.

For those interested a formal document signed by the first Knight Admiral Miklos Horthy.

Oh what the heck - Hungarian People's Republic - back when I had just enough to fit in one picture...

The one on the far right is one of those Moscow flea market finds - its a fake 17th Cossaks Medal (or something like that.) the skull and cross bones in the center are neat and I had no idea of the ribbon when I got them as I was an imperial junkie at the time. But the seller saw me coming with my Muldovian dialect...so I got it for about $5. THe other set is a non-cmobat EK2 from Detlev - it was my second piece. The other is a KO marked EK1 from Ebay for $65 (that can give you a time frame of when I got that....)

Yea - the shots at first are really nice - took the time to set them up, but there is just too much stuff to do it all like that - havnt even posted the other US stuff or the Hungarian Peoples Republic or,,, or....