Carol I

Another fake model for the first class of the order:

Coming back to the Russian regulations, apparently diplomats are also affected by them: RF investigators to question head of OSCE mission to Moldova Through his function, the diplomat in question is involved (among other things) in negotiations regarding the withdrawal of the Russian 14th Army stationed on the territory of the Republic of Moldova. Of course, it could only be a coincidence...

Sorry to hear about your troubles, Kevin. Most of the regulations are in force in the attempt to stop the smuggling of rare items and are in principle similar to regulations in force in other countries, as Greece for example. This being said, some of the regulations regarding the control of postal shipments date from the time of the Cold War and are still in force. I think I have read somewhere that a law forbidding the shipment of books by mail is apparently still in force. The law originated from the time when the authorities tried "to prevent the imperialist agents from gathering information on the achievements of the socialist regime". The law applied to all kinds of books "as technical manuals and textbooks could be easily disguised as innocent novels". I wonder how the publishing houses that are nowadays shipping books abroad are coping with this old law. I think the regulations say that old objects could be part of the Patrimony and that you would need an expert opinion as to whether it is or it is not. Unfortunately there are many grey areas regarding how to decide whether an object is part of the National Patrimony or not. These are probably used as loopholes by smugglers, but they also hamper the activity of collectors. These things are often discussed by honest collectors who find their activity disrupted by bureaucratic details. The regulations exist Kevin, but as mentioned above they have many grey areas. See for example OMCC 2053/2002 regarding the classification of cultural items or HG 1420/2003 regarding the commercial activities with cultural items (I found these named on a collector forum, but you would probably have to ask a dealer about the most up-to-date rules - most likely against a fee ). In principle the regulations refer to rare items as archaeological artefacts. You may have noticed in the news that there have been several instances when Dacian or Ancient Greek archaeological sites were suspected to have been robbed and the items sent to dealers with numismatic galleries (who may have been involved themselves in the traffic). The problem with these however, is that it is the duty of the individual not of authorities to prove that the items are not part of the Patrimony. This leads to strange situations, as for example that of a collector receiving by mail a couple of old and tattered banknotes and who had to go to many banks until obtaining a certificate proving that those were not circulation money and that no regulations regarding the shipment of money by post or the import of currency have been crossed.

What are the other three, Rick?

Nice collection Antti. Congratulations! This thread might provide some answers: Modified Romanian Royal awards being sold as ORIGINAL.

18 km in 1.5 hours... I did not imagine traffic was that bad... Sorry to hear that you missed some of the museums. I hope you still found something to see so that you did not feel your trip was a total loss of time. Anyhow, maybe you'll have better luck next time.

Sorry to disappoint you Roeland, but this is not my collection. Some years ago I took the two photos above of the top drawers of King Oscar's chest of orders that was on display in his palace.

And here is the wartime badge of the new Military Virtue Order.

Since 2002 there is also a Military Virtue Order. Here is the peacetime badge.

And the wartime Military Virtue Medal (also from the Chancellery of Orders)

Here is an image of the current design of the peacetime Military Virtue Medal (click on the thumbnail for full image). (from the Chancellery of Orders)

Another example of a fake model presented above, this time with ribbon.

Thank you very much for the reply.

Also on display there were these collars of Oscar II (sorry for the off-topic): Order of the Holy Annunciation (Savoy/Italy) Order of St. Olav (Norway) Order of St. Andrew (Russia) Order of the Tower and the Sword (Portugal) Order of the Royal Hohenzollern House (Prussia)

By the way, can someone help me identify all the orders in the box? Top row: 1. ? 2. Order of the Legion of Honour (France) 3. Order of the White Eagle (Russia) 4. Order of St. Charles (Monaco) 5. Order of the Norwegian Lion (Norway) Bottom row: 1. Order of Fidelity (Baden) ? 2. Order of the Black Eagle (Prussia) 3. Order of St. Stephen (Austria) 4. Order of St. Andrew (Russia) 5. Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (Russia) ?

King Oscar II of Sweden, see above.

I wish they were mine, but unfortunately they are in the top drawer of the chest of orders of King Oscar II of Sweden. I took the photo a couple of years ago when I was visiting the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

Here is an image of a Grand Cross of St. Stephen (centre bottom) along other orders to have an idea about relative size.

Kevin, your medal appears to have a porous appearance as if it was cast. Is it really so or is a photo artefact?

As mentioned in another post, there was an initiative to manufacure replacements for the awards lost or confiscated from war veterans. I guess yours could be one of those.

Igor, I think it would be hard to pinpoint the period of these awards as they have been used with the same design throughout their whole existences. The medal above is one of the oldest Romanian decorations. It existed with that design since 1870 if I remember correctly. Following the introduction of the "cross", it came to be known as "The Peacetime Military Virtue Medal". The "cross" was established in 1880 to reward outstanding bravery acts during the war, hence its name "The Wartime Military Virtue Medal". Since WWI it was the highest bravery award for lower ranks. It used the same design during its whole existence.

This is an interesting combination, Christer. The medal is "The 30th anniversary of the liberation from the fascist domination", i.e., the 30th anniversary of 23 August 1944. On the booklet however it is written "The 30th anniversary of the day of the armed forces", i.e., 25 October 1944. I wonder how it came to this.

Today is the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Mărăşeşti, one of the major battles on the Romanian front of WWI that thwarted the attempts of the Central Powers to defeat the reorganized Romanian Army in the summer of 1917. No less than 50 Orders of Michael the Brave were awarded for bravery acts during this battle. The other two major battles took place at Mărăşti and Oituz. The event was marked by a ceremony at the Mărăşeşti Mausoleum. Photos from the event can be found on the page of the Romanian Presidency.

Most likely the names were Zaharia Alecu and Popa Alexandru.

Does anyone know whether the red sash on his right (with a lozenge-shaped gold badge) is that of an order?