Carol I

Looking through some old photos I have found this image taken in the same museum.

As Rick has said, only the writing in black pencil is in Romanian, and that is an address. I presume it was that of the sender. Geoagiu de Jos (Lower Geoagiu) Băile (Spas) Villa Dubleşiu (Dubleşiu Villa, Dubleşiu being most likely the name of the owner of the house) Jud. Hunedoara (Hunedoara County)

Serbia is in the Southern European & Balkan States section. If someone could move this thread there, maybe it will have better exposure. :unsure:

Upper row: Military Merit Order, 1st and 2nd classes Military Merit Medal, 2nd class Bottom row: Medal for Distinguished Services in Defending the Social and State Order The last one seems strange: it looks like the Medal of Labour, but on the ribbon of the Medal for the 25th Anniversary of the Proclamation of the Republic.

The Order of the Star of Romania was not a requirement for the Order of Michael the Brave nor was it awarded automatically with the latter. Not only the colour, but there are eight blue stripes, resulting from the folding of the ribbon of the Order of the Star of Romania with four blue stripes (two on each side). Had it been the ribbon of the Military Virtue Medal, there would have been only 4 stripes on the rosette.

The presence of the Polish award on the bar indicates that the bar was made after 1919, but the upper limit of the manufacture date is difficult to establish. Your hypothesis could be a way to set that date, but it still has to be corroborated with the dates when the Polish award was confererd to Romanian officers. Could a list of these dates be found anywhere?

Thanks, Kevin. The mounting style is indeed different in gor's bar and the ones you posted. Is there any suspicion regarding the foreign badges? The MV Order on gor's bar looks pretty much like one from the National Military Museum (see below).

There is nothing wrong in principle with the arrangement. If he was a Romanian, then the Romanian orders should have precedence over awards from other countries. As for other awards, if he was not a career officer maybe he did not participate in earlier conflicts or he did not bother to mount the minor WWI-related awards. There are possible explanations, but I do not know if they are also real. I was struck however by the style of mounting. I am sorry now that I did not take images of the medal bars in the National Military Museum for comparisons. Maybe if gor could provide us with some more detailed images of the awards we could see whether there is some matter of concern with respect to them.

There is a list of the MV awards for WWI, but it contains several hundred names so... :unsure:

Thanks Paul. The whole idea was to point that differences between badges might exist. The Copenhagen award seems to have a somewhat pointed crown compared to the one you posted.

Here is another image of a badge of this order, displayed in a royal palace in Copenhagen several years ago. The badge is unfortunately out of focus but doesn't the surmounting crown appear to have a different shape?

"War" Veteran de razboi = War veteran

The usual meaning of the empty date space is that he is not dead.

Thanks IVB. So it might be a badge of a veteran association. I presume such veteran associations exist in all/many of the former Soviet states. Is it possible that they share some elements for their badges?

I hope he could give some details about this badge. It does not seem an official state award.

Here are images of the medals awarded by the Republic of Moldavia to the veterans of the Afghan war. (from www.soviet-medals-orders.com)

Do you mean you have information that this is an official award of the Republic of Moldavia? The language in the legend does not match. Can you give more details?

... with crown and war decoration.

Swedish orders have crowned Maltese crosses as insignia, while the award in the mentioned position does not have a crown (plus that it does not seem to have the usual deep split of the arms of a Maltese cross). Maybe the third order on the mid-line of the chest is a Swedish order.

Indeed Alex. I was not particularly interested in identifying this individual since the photo is not mine. But I found interesting the game of trying to identify the awards in the photo. P.S. It could be that we have missed a decoration on the chest mid-line: in line with the badge identified as the Lippe-Detmold House Order of the Honour Cross (#5) there seems to be something else, but it is hard to say whether it is a badge tilted on the coat edge or just a ribbon. I'd rather say it is the former.

The change in Bulgarian orders mentioned by 922F took place in 1908, so the photo was definitely taken after that year. And, if I understood right Eric's comment, the Medal of Prince Regent Luitpold was established in 1911, hence we may advance three years with the date. This date may also be confirmed if the first thing on the upper row turns out to be a Luitpold Cross (as suggested by Wild Card) rather than the Royal Merit Order of St Michael.

Thank you all. Let's sum up the lists of the awards. An update for the mid-line of the chest: 1. Order of Civil Merit (Bulgaria) - commander 2. 3. 4. Order of the Danilo (Montenegro) - commander 5. House Order of the Honour Cross (Lippe-Detmold) 6. Order of the Griffon (Mecklenburg-Schwerin) 7. Order of the Legion of Honour (France) - commander Upper row 1. Luitpold Cross (Bavaria) or Royal Merit Order of St Michael (Bavaria)? 2. 3. War Medal 1870-71 (Prussia) - with about 5 bars 4. 5. Centenary Medal (Prussia) 6. Order of the Red Eagle (Prussia) - Would the Prussian order be placed after the Prussian medals? 7. 8. Order of the Z?hringen Lion (Baden) 9. Order of Albert the Bear (Anhalt) 10. Lower row 1. Order of Albert (Saxony) 2. House Order of Saxe-Ernestine - knight 2b. Is there an order here? 3. Order of Franz Joseph (Austria) 4. Order of Philip the Brave (Hesse-Darmstadt) 4b. Is there an order here? 5. Order of the Crown (Italy) or Order of Friedrich (W?rttemberg) - knight? 6. Order of the Star of Romania - officer? 7. Order of Civil Merit (Bulgaria) - officer 8. Order of the Takovo Cross (Serbia) Bottom singles 1. Order of the Iron Crown (Austria) 2. Medal of Prince Regent Luitpold (Bavaria)

An update for the mid-line of the chest: 1. Order of Civil Merit (Bulgaria)? 2. 3. 4. Order of the Danilo (Montenegro) 5. House Order of the Honour Cross (Lippe-Detmold)? 6. 7. Order of the Legion of Honour (France)?

There might be a third order before the Order of Franz Joseph. Opinions?

Lower row 1. Order of Albert (Saxony)? 2. 3. Order of Franz Joseph (Austria) 4. 5. 6. Order of the Crown (Italy)? 7. Order of the Star of Romania ? 8. Order of Civic Merit (Bulgaria) 9. Order of the Takovo Cross (Serbia) Bottom singles 1. Order of the Iron Crown (Austria) 2.