Carol I

A mourning photo of Patriarch Teoctist with the Grand Cross insignia of the Order of the Star of Romania and the Grand Officer insignia of the Greek Order of the Orthodox Crusaders of Jerusalem (from the site of the Romanian Patriarchy)

The President of Romania has awarded today the Collar of the Order of the Star of Romania to the late Patriarch Teoctist "as a sign of recognition for the way in which Patriarch Teoctist has dedicated his whole life to the devoted service of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the national unity and the ideal of rapprochement through dialogue of all Christian Churches". Until now, the collar had only been awarded to heads of states.

Order for Civil Merit, republican issue (1946/7-1950) (See Bulgarian Order of Military Merit, Different Obverse)

Coming back to the original topic of this thread, here is another model of fakes.

Did it have a propeller blade next to the headstone?

He was 26 at the onset of WWI, so he had plenty of time to wear it.

He could have been a railroad employee.

Manufacturer's creativity in action...

Can anyone identify the neck decoration of Gen. Dragalina? It does not look Romanian.

Anytime, Kevin.

Romanian orders changed ribbons well before WWII, so the manufacturers should have had enough time to update their stock. As far as I remember, none of the ribbon bars seen used old-style ribbons, so I would rather think that the result was mainly caused by the "creativity" of the manufacturers, not their stock. I wonder why the Romanian ribbons have swords on them...

One the "nice" realities of communism: deleting history (remember "1984"? ). The removed words were Maiestatea Sa Regele (His Majesty the King). This is a fragment of Gen. Dragalina's order to the troops before heading to the frontline on the 11th of October 1916 (one day before being wounded). It reads (the deleted words in red): "Ofiţeri şi soldaţi ai Armatei I-a rom?ne, din acest moment am luat comanda armatei şi cer imperios la toţi, de la general la soldat: ?n primul r?nd .... apărarea cu viaţa a sf?ntului pam?nt al ţării noastre, apărarea vetrei strămoşesti, a ogorului şi a cinstei numelui de rom?n. Cer la toţi cea mai deplină ascultare şi cea mai strictă executare a ordinelor... Trupa care nu ?naintează, sa moară pe loc... Dumnezeu, Maiestatea Sa Regele şi Ţara vor răsplati pe viteji, iar numele lor va trăi pe vecii vecilor ?n istoria neamului. Cu Dumnezeu ?nainte! Victoria e a noastră!"

Here is his face. General Ioan Dragalina is one of the famous Romanian generals of WWI. Born in 1860 in Caransebeş, at that time in the Austrian Empire, he studied towards becoming an officer of the Austrian Army. However, following his convictions and ideals in 1887 he resigned from the Austrian Army, moved to Romania and joined the Romanian Army. He was considered one of the most talented Romanian generals at the onset of WWI. Only two days after he was appointed commander of the 1st Army he went to the frontline to inspect the troops and was wounded in the arm. The wound got infected and in spite of being operated, he died two weeks later. It is said that while in hospital he followed actively the operations of his troops engaged in a successful counteroffensive against the 11th Bavarian Division of General Paul von Kneussl. I guess the bas-reliefs on the monument represent him inspecting the frontline and following the operations while wounded in hospital. During WWII, his son Corneliu commanded the 6th Army Corps in Crimea and at Stalingrad.

There are very few Russian Orthodox churches in Romania as they belong to the minute Russian minority. Most of the churches are Romanian Orthodox, as is the majority of the population (about 85%). Of the remainder, the two most important ones are Roman Catholic and Protestant (4-5% each), the rest being divided between many other denominations. There is some information on Wikipedia about religion in Romania, but I think Kevin gave you a nice summary of the situation. I may suggest to start with the site of the National Tourist Office.

Translation: "This monument was raised during the rule of our glorious King of Greater Romania, Ferdinand I and His August Wife, Queen Maria. The prefect of the Timiş-Torontal county, Dr. Anton Bogdan, by the initiative of the "Choral Society The Ploughman" of Sustra, led by George Ardelean, teacher and chorus leader and Costa Ştefănel, chairman. 1927"

Laurens, as mentioned above, the Military Virtue ribbon for the Romanian orders indicates direct contact with the enemy and therefore a homefront activity would have qualified the recipient only for the war ribbon, not the full bravery ribbon. Of course, this does not exclude the use of the wrong ribbon on the bar. P.S. I cannot comment on the other ribbons/awards on the bar.

Unfortunately I had no chance to talk to him. I spotted him in the crowd and took a snapshot.

Thanks for the replies. If it is a brotherhood, I guess it should be something else than chefs and vintners as the man is in the academic world. There is also the possibility that he is a very talented (amateur) chef with an academic degree... On the other hand, the brotherhood badges on the site you indicated are a bit more ... "BLING BLING" (as Alex K had put it) than 'The Order of the Mink' above.

What is the badge in the photo below? I have jokingly named it 'The Order of the Mink'.

The Order of the Star of Romania and the Order of the Crown of Romania were reserved for officers. The Military Virtue ribbon indicates bravery in the face of the enemy.

Thanks for these interesting details. If anyone has images to illustrate these differences, please post them (perhaps in a new thread to avoid hijacking this one on fakes of the Order of Michael the Brave). According to Wikipedia, before war Maurice Couve de Murville was an inspector of finances and then director of finances in the Vichy regime. Then, in 1968 he was successively Foreign Minister, Minister of Finances and Prime Minister. At the date of the award mentioned in the certificate (14 May), he was still foreign minister, so it probably referred to an official award like the Order of the Star of the Socialist Republic of Romania. I would therefore be inclined to believe the hypothesis of a mix-up of items. The question whether the commander's cross was also his from the time as a Vichy official is interesting, but open for debate. Carol II had a son from his marriage with Zizi Lambrino, Carol Mircea Lambrino, who died last year. Mircea also had a son, Paul, who is currently trying to attract attention onto his origins, but support for his cause is fading. Paul brought to Romania some of Carol II's awards for the 2003 funeral at Curtea de Argeş, but I did not hear of him conferring any awards.

Thanks for this very informative (and scary) post. Last spring on eBay there was the badge below with a certificate, said to have been bestowed to Maurice Couve de Murville, France's Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1958 and 1968. According to the description, the document was dated 14.5.1968. Without seeing an image of the certificate I have thought that the items in the set were erroneously paired (an old commander's badge of the Order of the Star of Romania with a certificate for the third class of the Order of the Star of the Socialist Republic of Romania), but in the light of the information above... On the other hand, the date of the award was some 15 years after the death of the unnamed royal making private bestowals... Does this badge have the Celjavo or the da Costa particular features? How common was it for a French government official to receive unofficial awards? I think the French law is quite strict on this issue, but maybe it does not apply in this case.

Thanks for this piece of information. Do you know whether they made any Romanian orders? Is there any way to tell them apart from the originals?

The reverse of the above:

As far as I know, none were awarded this far and I wonder whether any were officially produced. Anyhow, given the quality of the new awards, I would not be surprised if some of the fakes would look better. On the other hand I have seen the image of the first class star below that was on sale on eBay some time ago. It is made according to the descriptions in the regulations of the order, but the seller had some other dubious looking badges which made me wonder whether it is a fantasy badge or an unofficial one made with original dies prepared for future awards. I really hope that new awards would look better than this.