Carol I

What is the first order, the one with white arms bordered with red and green?

To add just one thing, the numbers above refer only to the awards with the "princely crown" (not the "royal crown" that appears in all the images posted this far on this thread).

Up until 1908 there were 11 awards of the Bulgarian Order of St. Alexander 2nd class with surmounting swords. During the same period there were only 4 similar awards for the 1st class and 12 for the 3rd class. Who knows how many were awarded after 1908?

Here is an image from an old auction from La Galerie Numismatique with a certificate for the fourragere of the Star of Romania paired with a red fourragere with blue stripes.

Igor, can you please give some details about the fourragere in your collection? What are its colours, dark blue and ...? The image below is from an old auction from La Galerie Numismatique where a certificate for the fourragere of the Star of Romania is paired with a red fourragere with blue stripes. This appears to be in contradiction with the book by Safta et al where the same fourragere is described as blue with red stripes.

Here is an image of a class II set of the Bulgarian Order of St. Alexander from the recent UBS auction.

Hi Gerd! I think you have posted a badge third class (with diamonds) of the Bulgarian Order of St. Alexander. The badge second class had a white cross. But this might be the star Rene is after:

Images of the Romanian Order for Industrial and Commercial Merit have been posted on the site of the Office of the President from an award ceremony (click on the photo below for more images from the event).

Romanian orders did not have to be returned to the Chancellery of the Orders until King Carol II's reign and even then the rule was not strictly enforced. But if some orders were re-used, I do not think that Resch would allow the use of its cases with any other badge. On the other hand it was possible that other jewellers worked for the official contractors. I have seen one reference to Karl Fischmeister of Vienna who did that with Resch in the end of the 19th century. Then in WWII Zimmermann of Pforzheim worked for the National Mint. Unfortunately, there is much uncertainty around such details as there is no serious study of the matter. I was kind of hoping that someone knew whether "AF" was a subcontractor or a major order jeweller and could thus tell if the set is genuine or a mismatch (accidental, due to greed etc.).

Thanks Rick for the scan. The marks look indeed like #60 and #111. The scanner did not work, so I turned to the photo camera. I first tried to take photos in macro mode, but the images still did not turn out quite clear. At last I got the idea to use a 10x magnifier placed in front of the camera lens and I took several photos until I got the few I posted. The system is quite cumbersome with one hand holding the magnifier, the other one the camera and both of them trying to get the marks in focus and therefore the rate of success was rather low.

Thanks Rick for the reply and the details. No "FR" stamp. Thanks! I am looking forward to seeing the scans.

Looking for the marks of Prague, I stumbled upon an Italian page with the Austrian marks for silver. It seems that up to 1867 the town mark for Prague was "B" and then it was changed to "C". I presume the mark was changed again in 1922 with the introduction of the Czech marks when it became a "P". And one more thing from that page. Apparently the Austrians also used a dog head mark from 1867.

I know Mark Piersall's site. It is one of the best on the two oldest Romanian orders (information and images). And I see now what you meant by 29 variations, but I do not regard the various grades of the order as variations. If you find someting more on these marks, please let me know. This far I managed to find an image of the Czech marks on the Online Encyclopedia of Silver Marks. Too bad they do not have real images.

Thanks again Dave. So it was a mismatched set after all. Could you please give me more details about this? Were there 29 known manufacturers? Can you please share the information you have on this? Thanks.

Thanks Dave for the details. If the case belongs to the badge, the order is from the period 1881-1914, so we narrowed down the period. However, no matter how hard I try, the mark does not look like a cross or a goddess' head. So it comes down to a Czech mark from a town denoted by "A" or at least something that looks like an "A" ... a tough nut to crack.

I have just seen Rod's post below from Straighten Me Out: Could this mean that the marks on the badge above are in fact Austrian and the badge was made in Vienna? Maybe the Czechs used the general markings of the Austro-Hungarian empire. I took another look at the marks and the letter to the left of the rabbit's head appears to be an "A" as well (though I am still not 100% sure).

The marks appear to be: "VL" (maker's mark), Finnish crown stamp, "813H", boat stamp for Helsinki (place of assay) and "P.5" (for 1920).

Order for Military Merit, 5th class with war decoration and the ribbon of the Military Order for Bravery

Order for Military Merit, 5th class

Order for Military Merit, 4th class Does anyone have a spare a ribbon for this badge?

Order for Civil Merit, 4th class

Order of St. Alexander, 5th class (without crown)

You could be right, Jacky. Maybe Deruelle will come with some more details about his badge.

I guess yours is a 5th class with crown and swords, not a 4th class. The 4th class was golden and had a rosette on the ribbon. The yellowish colour on your badge might just be patina. Here is a comparison between the 4th class and the 5th class of the Order of Saint Alexander

If someone has this book, I would appreciate receiving some details about the Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius. Thank you.