JohanH

Here is a table showing the Numbers of white rose orders awarded to foreigners (non finnish) between 1919-1944. Stk med kedja = grand cross with collar Stk = grand cross K1 = commander 1st class K = commander R1 = knight 1st class R = knight tecknet i silver = award of merit sammanlagt = total since you don’t seem to have a breast star, I guess it is a commander class you have.

The Hallmark 813H is often seen on finnish silver. The year stamp should be a letter followed by a number. You could try to contact the office of the order and ask if they can look in the archives for your guy. Email: info(at)ritarikunnat.fi

Could it be related to music or singing? I think it looks like a music note and a singing? face...

Miniatures are always difficult to say if they are "original" or period or when they are made. Since so many was privately purchased. I hope you´ll have a nice vacation and when you get back we want to see some pictures! I think most collectors have some medals or orders that are not original. Either they know it of not. I have two that I know are "fakes" or reproductions. One is a gold medal from the finnish winter war (only awarded 7 times to head of states) and one is a finnish gold medal of merit only awarded once to a german. Since they are impossible to obtain I´ll settle with good? reproductions.

As far as I know they are awarded to people who made great achivements in sports or physical education in Finland. The following information is from E.F. Wrede's Finlands Utmärkelsetecken. The grand cross are awarded to the especially sucessful leaders or sportsmen. It´s only awarded to Finnish citizens and only 12 living recipients are allowed. One third of the 12 can be active sportsmen or women. Gold order order are awarded for 20-25 years of service in the field of sports. Also foreign recpients are allowed, but only top athletes like winners of the olympic games, world champions and similar. Silver order are awarded for long service in the field of sports or other sport achivements. Foreign recipients that are top athletes in their country or higher. Medal with gold cross are awarded to leading people in a sportsdistrict, sport organisations or similar. Athletes that are district champions or higher. Silver medal, same as silver medal with gold cross. But the one with gold cross are for extra meritous achivements. Bronze medal was awarded to sports officials for long service or active sportsmen. The 1945 version has the text "Urheilu Isänmaa" on the back and the 1983 version has the text "Urheilu Liikunta"

Hello Wessel! Are all your orders/medals original? If they are, you have a to say the least an amazing collection! Can we see some pictures of them?

Damn, that was fast! Thank you very much!

How rare are the Hindenburg crosses awarded to finns? Here is a pic of one awarded to Ivar Kauranen, the stamp says "Deutscher gesandt… in Helsingfors". Can anyone read the signature?

I just had the opportunity to purchase an original grand cross ribbon/sash from ww2. So if anyone should have a grand cross for sale, please let me know!

Hello! Here are my little collection of sports medals from Finland. Not really military but maybe someone finds them interesting anyway. They are quite often mounted on finnish medalbars from after the war. The only cross I still need for my collection is a 1983 type grand cross. So if anyone know of one for sale I am definitly interested! The grandcross 1945 type is only awarded 29 times if I remember right. Unfortunately I don´t have a name for the recipient of my cross.

It´s a huge job but I think it needs to be done. It will probably take a few years before I am done with all the recipients of the Swedish orders but I´ll let you know how it proceeds and if I find any thai citizens that you might have missed. I compared your list of grand crosses with my list and I found one person you seem to have missed. Thailändske medborgaren och förste gen. adj. hos H.M. konungen. Luang Iwra Narong (or something similar) was awarded the grand cross 1960-09-03

And by the way, the use of "Statskalendern" and "Hofcalendern" is of great help when it´s difficult to read the names in the old Matrikel books. Some years of Statskalendern is available at runeberg.org and I have a few earlier ones myself. But so far I only have the 1817, 1845 and 1868. Good thing that they arent so expensive.

Thank you Micke for your help. Reading the Thai names is pretty difficult and so are some of the other names in the Matriklar as you say. I'm working on a project that includes digitalizing the all the awardees of Swedish orders of the sword, North star and Wasa and make it searchable in a easy way. Nice website you have, I have seen it before and you have some very interesting information and pictures.

Thank you for your kind words.

Finally I've had the time take them out to make a new group photo of my entire collection of Liberty Crosses. All crosses/medals in the picture are different years or variants. I think I have three or four different variants of VM2 1918. The one's I still search for are the following. 1918 VM1 with red cross 1939 VR1 with swords VR1 without swords VR2 without swords 1941 VR1 with swords and oakleaf VR1 without swords VR2 with swords and oakleaf 1945- VR1 with swords VR1 without swords VR2 with swords and rosette VR3 with red cross VR4 with swords and rosette VR4 without swords VM2 type 2 And of course all grand crosses and breast stars. But since they are waay to rare and expensive I don't think I will ever get those.

Thank you Andreas. You seem to be absolutely correct about both names. I just need to figure out the middle name of Snit Dayananda. Thanks again! BR Johan

Yeah, it´s been really slow on finding new liberty crosses for my collection. So in the meantime I´ve been buying some other medals for my collection while I´m waiting for some new crosses to come up for sale. On Emedals there is a VR1 1941 without swords for sale (awarded 22 times) but I think it´s too expensive. Especially with the tax and customs fees. Someday I´m planning to make a new group photo of my liberty crosses, I just need the weather to improve so I can get good sun light.

Hello! Can someone help me to read these names of Thai recipients of the Swedish order of the sword grand cross. The first one should be an admiral in the navy and the bottom one should be an air force general but I cannot see what it reads. They were both awarded the grand cross of the order of the sword on 15/1 1965.

There is one for sale on Huuto now. https://www.huuto.net/kohteet/suomen-leijonan-1luokan-ritarimerkki-miekkojen-kera/495638423

Hello Janne! The only lion order with swords that I know of is the one at Prenikka. But I suppose you already know of that one. But since most of the orders with swords was awarded to foreigners, mostly germans (at least according to the lists I have), I believe the best place to find one is in Germany. I guess you only have to wait and watch the coming auctions and keep your fingers crossed. But you might get some competition….

Another idea is to contact the veteran union directly. Since it´s them who issue the cross they should have all the details about them. Number of awarded, material, etcetera. http://www.veljesapu.fi/pages/Palaute/3224

I hope you have better luck than me with contacting Tiainen. I have sent him several emails a while ago but he doesn´t reply. If you do find any more information about the SS crosses, please let me know.

I would love to see some pictures of your cross and it´s hallmarks.

No problem. Like I said, I´m far from being an expert on these crosses. But here are my thoughts and ideas. One guess could be that the crosses numbered 1000-1059 were made for museums and therefore numbered while the crosses made for collectors was unnumbered? As I understand it, the variation 3 was made only for museums and collectors. Not to be awarded to veterans. If I remember right the cross was issued in late 50s, possibly 1958, by the SS-veteran union. Maybe not all SS-volunteers joined the veteran union and therefore didn´t get a cross? I believe that when it comes to atleast other Finnish memory crosses the veteran himself had to apply for a cross/medal. Maybe not everyone wanted to show that they were former SS men? Don´t take any of this as fact. It´s only my personal guesses. Yes, the "R3" and "RR" is Tiainens rarity scale. R3 equals to "rarely for sale" and RR is "extremely rare".

Here are the pages about the SS cross. The medal from Rauma military hospital have no connection to Finnish SS as i know of. So why it´s on the same page I don´t know.