Carol I

Why do you find this strange, Jacky? It was a distinguished conduct medal awarded to Romania's own and allied military personel. In WWI it was the Entente, in WWII the Germans and the Soviets (I do not know of any soviet name for this low ranked medal, but soviets have indeed received Romanian orders in the last years of WWII).

The Medal for Valour and Faith was established in 1903 through the High Decree 2812 in order to reward distinguished conduct in police duties. With the Second Balkan War of 1913 it began to be awarded to military personel. The distinction between police and military medals was the addition of the "1913" clasp to the ribbon. Then, when Romania entered WWI, swords were added to the medals awarded to military personel through Royal Decree 3429 of 21.12.1916.

How was your trip, Jani? Did you manage to get to the museums?

Replacement Order of the Crown of Romania Original Order of the Crown of Romania

In 2004 an Order for Valour and Faith (I think this is the official translation of the name Bărbăţie şi Credinţă) was established. Images of the Commander's and Knight's badge are available on the the site of the Chancellery of Orders.

The real thing: Obverse / Reverse

The real thing

The real thing: Obverse / Reverse

Some time ago it was mentioned that veterans were to receive replacements of their lost/confiscated medals, but as far as I remember it was about (poor quality) replicas of the original awards, not awards with the new design. I think I had at some point images of the replacements for the Order of the Crown of Romania. I will check if I can find them.

Placa means breast star (from the French plaque). The real thing

In drawings they look rather good. In reality... take a look at the images posted on on the site of the Chancellery of Orders.

It's only a strange choice of words, Kevin. Civilians wear rosettes (which may have several shapes) on their jackets, while officers wear bars on their uniforms,

A small note Kevin, these are not replacements of long-lost medals or orders, but the new awards of Romania. High resolution images of the real things can be found on the site of the Chancellery of Orders. Too bad they look more like trinkets than awards.

This is a commemorative award, Ordinul "Victoria Revoluţiei Rom?ne din Decembrie 1989" (The Order of the Victory of the Romanian Revolution of December 1989), established in 1996 (this makes it the first award of the new republic).

It is not included among the official decorations, so it must be an unofficial issue.

Thanks Hunyadi, hence his collar must have looked like this.

I see... Everything seems to indicate a lower rank. Thanks again. If I dig some more details I will post them here.

Unusual ribbon ... It normally was yellow with red and blue stripes on the sides.

Thanks for the reply. What about the hat? Is it also of the enlisted variety? What would the colour of his collar have been if he was connected with the military postal service (as legend went in the family)?

Thanks Keith for your input. The contrast in the photo I posted before was altered. Below is a close-up of the stars from a photo of the original photo. For other details I'd have to take a look at the original with a magnifying glass, but that will have to wait for some while.

Great! It appears that they are two city assay office marks for Vienna. I cannot imagine why the jeweller applied not one but two such marks on the loop when there already was one on the small ring.

Thanks Hunyadi. On a site on the Austro-Hungarian Army I have found the information below. Corporal (two six pointed white stars on the collar or collar patch) Lieutenant (two embroidered six pointed silver or gold stars) It is hard to tell from the picture whether the stars are applied or embroidered. Were there any other differences between the insignia of corporals and lieutenants other than the material of the stars? The family references to him are somewhat vague three generations later: "member of the military postal service for many years".

I can imagine that, so it's no problem if you don't succeed. An alternative method would be a digital camera with a good macro function, but this could also be tricky since the marks are so small and diffcult to get in focus.