new world

Than you for posting these medals! This variation is super rare, was supposedly made only for one year.

hi Igor, It seems quite reasonably priced at only 22.30 Euro. It looks like the books can be ordered here: https://bgknigite.com/shop/орденът-за-храброст-сред-отличият/?v=a112b4dbca96 Seller accepts PayPal and other forms of payment (bank, etc.). I am a bit confused on the area this book covers - the title makes it sound like it focuses on Bravery Order, but I see that 1st half is on other Bulgarian awards and last part is on modern Bravery order, which leaver around 70 something pages to cover actual Bravery Order from Royal times. The books appears to have some material and photos from this forum. Anyway, I am looking forward to this book!

Nice, he was a pilot. I am sure there were more than one awarding of this order to Romanians.

Such a lovely medal bar! Do we know who it belonged to?

Just because the quality of these old stars is lacking it does not mean they are automatically fakes or copies. There were official manufacturers with consistent top quality products and there were private makers, with whom the quality was all over the place.

Good luck to him. My guess is it will be sitting there forever at this price.

Lovely Bravery awards, thanks for sharing! That box for 3rd class is quite rare!

Excellent medal! It's the rarest of them all.

Very nice Royal Romanian medals, they look original to me! Is there anything specific you'd like to know?

I second 922F's opinion, this crown looks like Eastern Orthodox type, it was probably taken from some church award. The cross is early Schwerdtner type, pre-1908 type. I'd say the original crown was lost or damaged and was replaced with church one.

This mis-matched set of Bravery order was sold for 12 000 Euro + 27% buyer's premium, total of 15 240 Euro!!!

922F, Your stories are like the ones from the spy novels! You lived through some interesting times and events! In reference to possibility of your host being Petrov or Pavlov it looks like they were too young. You said then your host was around 60 in 1980, which will make him around 100 today. Pavlov passed away couple years ago and he was in his 80s. I don't have data handy for age of T. Petrov, but for some reason I though of him as being younger as well. I could be wrong, but I recall reading somewhere that he was in his 40s in 1980s.

Hi 922F, Your story is a fascinated one, even if it was not Raynov. Not everyone was able to put together such great collection, it was certainly off limits for an ordinary collector during communist time. First, rare awards were always super expensive and not affordable on a regular salary. One had to have extra sources of income, often illegal ones, like having secret factory to make things in high demand - clothes, shoes, etc. Such entrepreneurs vigorously protected they identities and did not display their wealth, did not buy expensive items, because that could create unnecessary attention from the authorities and would lead to jail time and confiscation of illegal gains and property. Second, awards were considered antiques and dealing in antiques was prohibited, it was considered illegal trade, and such dealers were treated as parasites. There were laws against such activities, again resulting in jail and confiscation. Lastly, tsarist awards were against the ideology and collecting them was not encouraged. Considering above points I would guess the collector you met was someone well connected to party and government, perhaps someone famous - like a writer, artist, professor, scientist, or perhaps a retired military or law enforcement. Someone who was allowed exceptions from the laws and with whom the law enforcement was closing their eyes on his activities. Considering that your host was inviting people to his apartment to see the collection, I think his hobby was not a secret to the authorities. If it was not Raynov, do you think it could be one of the people who researched the awards and later wrote the books on the subject - someone like Prof. Pavlov or T. Petrov?

Here is an article about robbery of Raynov's home: https://www.168chasa.bg/article/2375452 There are some medals mentioned in the list of stolen items. Also, apparently he had large art and books collection, which you likely saw if you visited his home. At the bottom of the page there are photos his house and apartment building - do they look familiar? More: https://blitz.bg/article/18802 http://bolgari.org/oshte_prizhive_bogomil_rainov__stopil__domashniia_si_muzei-el-916.html https://www.marica.bg/balgariq/100-g-ot-rojdenieto-na-bogomil-rajnov

Just to clarify, the fake in this photo and the link (the one which was sold to me long time ago) is a partial fake: - Center part on the front is real, with hard enamels, - Cross with white enamel is fake - soft enamel and weird finish on the back. It looks like someone found parts of old award and made missing parts from scratch.

I think you are referring to photo in this thread:

I know exactly what you mean, I once bought a copy with such fastener (I was lucky to be able to return it). I'll try to search for pics on my old PC drive. It looks like star in the latest "set" has enamel cracks on the left side of top and bottom arms, which is a good indication that it's hard enamel. If that is the case chances are that star is real.

So, what do you think is happening here: - Seller is trying to deceive, - Seller really doesn't know the difference?

Supposedly this is 1st class set of Bravery Order. However, it looks like a mismatched set: 1) Star from 1st class, 68 mm wide. 2) Cross is from 2nd class: - height is 73 mm, - width is 52 mm (which is measurement of 2nd class). 1st class should be 59 mm wide.

Impressive find! The most difficult one to obtain - due to rarity and sky high cost!!!

Well, it could be a version to consider, but the award was sold as attributed to a German General, who served during WWI, so he had to be awarded during Ferdinand time, as after 1918 German Empire did not exist: "Aus dem direkten Nachlaß des Generals der Kavallerie Ludwig Moritz Camillo Freiherr von Müller (1854-1943), Generaladjutant König Friedrich August III. von Sachsen (1865-1932, reg. von 1905 bis 1918). " So, here you have a discrepancy and his award must be manufactured during Ferdinand period.

I agree that it's not an ideal situation to discuss awards based only on the photos, but that's the best we have in this situation. Unless a member forum bought this award and decides to share more details with us. As far as awards were put away and not being worn - there are signs of wear: 1) Damage to enamel on the cross - front of left arm along the edge and back of right arm. 2) Loss on gold plating on top of the cross under the loop. This was caused by cross being lifted and rubbed against the lower edge of the crown. These signs of wear likely were not created by a single wear, we should assume cross was worn several times. Oddly the star does not have visible signs of wear, which could be explained that only the cross was worn. One can treat this as a supporting evidence for the theory that cross was added to this set, but it's just a speculation.

Bulgarian St Alexander Grand Cross set was sold last week at an auction for 6000 Euro + buyer premium, around $9000. I was talking to some collectors about this award and few interesting observations were made casting doubts on this set. 1) Cross seems to be not from Grand Cross grade, but from a lower class: - It has massive loop on top like on Commander crosses, that loop should not be on the Grand Cross, because the cross is attached to sash with separate carbine type device. Massive loop is really for wearing on a neck ribbon. - Crown looks too small proportionally, it should be larger. It's curious that auction listing does not list dimensions of the cross, almost like they knew something's not right. 2) There's no sash, no photos of both cross and star in the box. Is it because it would be obvious that cross looks smaller than it's supposed to be? 3) Box - it looks newer than comparable boxes for the same grade. Specifically gold print looks shinier and brighter than on other boxes, like it was done recently. What do you think?