new world

Igor, where did this document come from?

Thank you Igor, these photos are amazing!

well, these fakes were from 9 years ago, they are probably much better now

Wow! That Civil Merit with diamonds is stunning!!!

Fake 4th class 1st grade Bravery. Was selling by the same person as fake 3rd class from previous post. Apparently was made by the same faker.

If you refer to post #74 in this discussion - there are photos of Soviet Marshal Tolbukhin with 1st class of Bravery. He was awarded post September 1944, most likely in 1945. As you can see he received award with a royal crown. In the same post - another Soviet officer with Bravery 3rd class 2nd grade - also award with a crown. As you can see, these are real examples of people receiving official Bravery awards during Republican times. It's possible that Bravery awards with wreath were all fantasy pieces. Does anyone have a photo of Bravery cross with wreath in wear?

rare case for 3st class 2nd grade 1941 version

Actually, this same fake Bravery was discussed an one of the forums back in 2008. I was able to find photos from 2008. Photos are not as good as the ones I posted couple days ago, but you can still see it's the same cross...

I would be interested to see better photo of the star in the top left corner - white one on a small stand. That star looks like 1st class and is extremely rare!!!

You have good points, however the problem is that sellers usually don't use this type of side-by-side comparison when selling. You only see a single award advertised and you have no idea if it's slightly smaller than normal cross. As for removing the swords - fakers make awards from scratch, removing swords and applying proper finishing will not be that difficult for them.

I recall seeing such crosses for sale, however I did not like what I saw and decided to pass on them. To me thesee 'doctor' awards were always questionable, as it is too easy to make them by cutting off the swords from regular awards. Unless there's solid provenance we will never be sure whether such conversion was done 75 years ago or just recently.

@Vazov: Look at the quality of this item, it's very low for such high-level award. @922F: I don't own this award, so can't answer your question about hard/soft enamel.

hi Vazov, I remember this dealer, he was active about 15 years ago. I would not put too much trust into his stories. My impression of him was that he used to exaggerate a lot. According to his descriptions almost every item he was selling was super rare and unique opportunity for a collector. I have to admit - he sold some nice and rarer items, but not every item on his site was unique as he was trying to represent.

Very cool document!!! It's interesting how the award is called Military Order in the document, not Bravery Order.

fake Bravery reverse of fake Bravery more...

so, based on the above facts - can we conclude that badges marked with asterisks were made during WWI period?

Graf, wide crown in your last pick looks like it's sterling silver Are you sure it's brass?

Saint Alexander order marked with asterisk

Thank you, this is very interesting info! We now established that these badges were made in Austria. I don't think the asterisk marks Red Cross badges for being war period (these were approximately from 1890-1900s, there was no war in Austria at the time).

You've got the same boxes, but in much better condition! I checked Pavlov's book - he just has a photo of the box and does not say anything about it. Based on the fact that he put the box in section for Bravery with gold circle we can make conclusion that awards in my 1st post don't belong to these boxes. It looks like the sellers misinform us. Also, the fact that these early crosses were made by Schwerdtner is significant discovery - Pavlov does not say so, he also does not show photo of the stamp inside of the box.

Thank you Graf. I have few awards with the asterisk as well. One of them is St Alexander 4th class from Boris period. It's well made award, so I am not sure your theory about them being temporary ones is valid. What would they be replaced with? Perhaps asterisk means something else...

I saw couple interesting cased Bravery awards sold in these special boxes, marked by Schwerdtner, Wien. Boxes are covered with leather, are brown in color (unlike other Bravery boxes). These are supposedly late Alexander or early Prince Ferdinand awards. Not sure if the crosses belong to the boxes though. What do you think? Here's 4th class award 3rd class award

What is the meaning of the * (star) mark on this badge?

ilieff, It seems you are confusing two things here - Grand vs. Great Cross. Note how Petrov is referring to 1st class pre-1933 as "Great Cross"? This is not the same as Grand Cross. Grand Cross name was not used before 1933 for Civil and Military Merit awards. However, it was used for St Alexander order. You can see evidence of this by checking award documents and boxes.

Wonderful collection! Considering there were around 1,700 of these awarded, you collection represents roughly 1% of them.