BalkanCollector

I wouldn't be surprised...

Here's a spomenica that looks like it could be the one for gravestones. It is currently for sale at aukcije.hr. The seller claims it's 13,5cm in size and made of duraluminum. https://www.aukcije.hr/prodaja/Kolekcionarstvo/Militarija/Ordeni-i-medalje/Jugoslavija/1362/oglas/SPOMENICA-1941-PLAKETA-13-5-CM/3100967/

Intereting question. I've had a post-WW2 issued medal with a pin which seems somewhat similar to the one in the middle. I'm not 100% certain it was the same type but I think it looks closer to it than the other two.

Very interesting! I didn't know they had molds for gravestones. I guess there must be plenty of those since people died and were buried in different places.

Some time ago, there was a mold for spomenica for sale at the Croatian auction site aukcije.hr. I can't find it on the site's sold items and it seems like I haven't saved the pictures either since I can't find them in my archive unfortunately. It is possible that someone got their hands on the mold and is making these fake pieces. Silver costs a lot more than some other metals and these fakers just care about top profit. They could easily put some lead to gain the proper weight and I'm sure they'll perfect their fakes any time soon.

Very interesting article, thank you for sharing!

To be honest, if you didn't say one of these is fake, I probably wouldn't even question the originality looking only at the pictures. Couple of weeks ago I talked to a seller at the antique show and he told me that there are fakes of "spomenica" and that he only sells real ones. I thought he was just trying to give good impression, especially since I know this seller from before, he is all sweet talk and overall a very invasive seller. Which one is fake? Now I'm questioning everything I know about these but I'm guessing the one on the left since it looks really rough and especially those cracks on the reverse which seems to point out that it's cast.

Some jaw dropping uniforms! Really wish I had more room to collect these but might as well kick out some of my residents so I can turn their rooms into my no trespassing area.

Such an incredible group, thank you for sharing!

Thank you for the reply! I thought it was a bit shady.

It's been some time since I updated this thread. The reason was the lack of new additions to my collection. I finally got this a bit more rare piece, Youth Factory "Ivo-Lola Ribar" Železnik, Belgrade. The factory was built from April 1947 until early 1948 during which 15,566 members of the youth participated in the construction. There are two types of badges from this youth labour action. The one I have is from 1948 and the cyrillic writing on it says ОМЛАДИНСКА ФАБРИКА „ИВО-ЛОЛА РИБАР“ ЖЕЛЕЗНИК (Omladiska fabrika „Ivo-Lola Ribar“ Železnik). The one from 1947 looks the same but the writing is different „ОМЛАДИНСКА ТВОРНИЦА ЖЕЛЕЗНИК“ (Omladinska tvornica Železnik) and of course the year is different.

I stumbled upon this generic facsimile of Draža Mihailović with a Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland stamp. The seller claims that a bunch of these were in Draža's possession when he was captured by the Yugoslav communist authorities. Is the story true and is this piece original?

Hello Vladimir! You might get a quicker response if you post this in "Southern European & Balkan States" section of the forum. Here's the link: https://gmic.co.uk/forum/195-southern-european-balkan-states/

Very interesting insight Valter! What do you think about silk? I have an old cutlery box with silk lining where I keep some of my medals. The box seems like it's made of thin sheets of wood or maybe even hard cardboard.

Absolutely amazing! Do you have any idea on why the award is so damaged? Possibly a ground find?

It was displayed during the exhibition Decorations from the Legacies of the Historical Archives of Belgrade. Here's the link which can be found on the thread posted by Paja: https://www.arhiv-beograda.org/en/izlozba-odlikovanja

That could be it, thank you!

Can anyone identify this hat badge? From which country is it? I honestly don't know where to post it so I choose this section.

The newest photo I've found on the internet. Mihajlo Apostolski wearing his Suvorov 2nd class.

It says "белгиску држављанку" which means "the Belgian citizen". Unfortunately, there isn't anything on the document that indicates for which merits was she awarded.

Those that are currently offered on ebay are all 3rd classes and I don't see any 2nd class of this early type for sale. Those early 3rd classes are cheap and would be in the entry level collector's range. The early 2nd classes aren't that cheap but they also aren't too expensive either but they aren't that easy to find.

Unfortunately no. Until recently I thought they were, even though they don't have any silver hallmarks but a fellow forum member pointed out to me that these aren't in fact made of silver. Here's another early second class of this order posted by Paja, numbered #411.

I decided to create this topic to share my early Order of Labour 2nd class, a rare screwback version with a low number. I hope to turn this topic into a small forum database of this order (only screwback versions) since these are getting harder and harder to find so if you have one and if you're willing to share it with the community, feel free to post some pictures. Also, what's the highest number you've seen on these? The highest I've seen was in a #1,6XX range. Here's my boxed example numbered #462. It came in a group of the holder of the Partisan Remembrance Award 1941 but sadly, the document for the Order of Labour 2nd class is missing. The good thing is that the box is numbered.

Milutin Morača (on the left) wearing his Kutuzov 2nd class. He is general-major on this photo unlike the quoted one when he was a pukovnik (colonel).

Here's another photo of Peko Dapčević (on the right) wearing his Suvorov 2nd class.