Carol I

Another image from another auction of La Galerie Numismatique where a certificate for the fourragere of the Star of Romania is paired with a blue fourragere with red stripes.

Another image from another auction of La Galerie Numismatique where a certificate for the fourragere of the Star of Romania is paired with a mainly blue fourragere.

Interesting story, Dragomir, wherefrom did you find it? Do you have some more details? Anyhow, I do not think that this is the reason why they forced King Mihai to abdicate. They got this idea quite a long time before. And it is said that the most important fact that sped things up was the announcement of King Mihai that he intended to get married. And to make things worse, this came after he surprisingly returned from the marriage of Princess Elisabeth of Great Britain when the communist government hoped that he would voluntarily remain in exile.

I could not see any rank insignia (on the three in front at least) so I concluded they were only privates. I am curious why this picture was taken. I do not think that it is a simple snapshot, so I guess the people prepared in advance for the photo (this is why they seem freshly spruced up). But was it for a demonstration of the machine gun (with the occasion of an inspection maybe)? Was it only a martial memento of their war service?

Maybe they were new conscripts for 1927 who did not see service in WWI.

The Romanian Order of Michael the Brave was closed in October 1944, so he must have received the successor, the Order of Michael the Brave with Swords.

I forgot to mention Prince Henrik of Denmark. Quite a lot of awards for him as well.

I have never thought of that. Thanks.

Do you think the chest or at least the compartments in it are new? The way I remember it, the chest looked rather old, with leather labels with the name of each order.

Had the collection been mine, with much pleasure Gerd. But, alas, it is that of the late King Oscar II of Sweden. I took a picture of his chest of orders when I have been visiting Stockholm a couple of years ago. Joke aside, I wonder what materials did they use for the chest. The orders seem to have been kept in pristine conditions for more than 100 years.

Nice badge, Kevin. One small note though: those are not "M"s, but "E"s. They form the crowned cipher of Queen Elena (the mother of King Mihai).

You can even accomodate collars.

What about this storage method?

Kevin, the ribbon in the upper right corner was also used for the Medal of the 40th Anniversary of 23 August 1944 (or in Romanian Medalia Comemorativa "A 40-a aniversare a revolutiei de eliberare sociala si nationala, antifascista si antiimperialista" )

I suggest splitting this topic and moving all messages from #77 on into a new thread: "Unknown badge of St. Cyril and Methodius" (in Western Europe or in Central & Eastern European States).

Thanks Jim. Following your warnings I've decided to leave the ribbon as it is for fear of damaging it. A bit off topic now, does anyone know how is the moir? pattern achieved on a ribbon?

Thanks Rick. I decided to leave it as it is since there are so many risks with washing the ribbon. I will only try to see if there are any bits of the glue that would just peel off, but that will be all. Thanks again to you and to Tom.

Thanks Tom. It seems the attachment hook is broken, so I suspect 'they' tried to find a way to keep the ribbon closed. The bad thing is that on top of the glue there are bits of paper. Well, if the risk is to ruin the ribbon while trying to clean it, maybe I should just leave it alone.

Do you have any tips/suggestions as to how to clean the ribbon below without damaging it? It appears to have old glue residue on the reverse.

No other opinion? Below is the star of the order. It is in the Bulgarian colours (white-green-red) and it has an image of the two saints in the centre, yet it does not look at all as the star of the Bulgarian Order of St. Cyril and Methodius above.

Queen Margrethe of Denmark

I really do hope that there were no human remains with this ID tag or if there were they were given proper burial and ONCE informed. As far as I know, the oval ID tags were supposed to be broken in two when a soldier was put to rest in a temporary grave near the battlefield, one half remaining with the soldier for future identification and the other half being taken as evidence. This tag being intact, suggests a soldier killed far from friendly lines (in territory lost after an attack or even after surrendering).

The more I read about this, the more it seems that the silver clasps were meant for participation to all the battles in a sector, while the bronze clasps were meant for particpation to some of the battles.