TracA

No One, Very nice award. Indeed, if a rosette that I have has a hallmark on it, then it's ス. All the best, Tracy

…and another Order of the Sacred Treasure with a hallmark. This is a 5th Class with 幣 (hei) on the reverse just below the 6h rivet. About the 幣 hallmark see Medals of Asia at https://asiamedals.info/threads/mark-on-japanese-order-who-and-when.15113/. No rosette with this one. The lid has gold kanji with the “Meiji/Taisho” stylization of 勣 (kun). This is what, I believe, JapanX would refer to as “a salty specimen”. The photos below actually make it appear lighter than it really is. The ribbon is so heavily soiled that it looks brown. The silver is quite tarnished and has a dull gray look. Some dirt won’t easily come off of the white enameled rays and almost each of the red glass cabochon “jewels” is chipped/pitted and/or scratched. Nonetheless, I’m delighted to have this in my collection. Enjoy. Tracy Obverse: Reverse: The 幣 (hei) hallmark up close: …and finally, the case lid:

I just received this lovely Order of the Sacred Treasure 6th Class, cased. On the reverse below the 6h rivet is the M mark of the Japan Mint, Osaka. The M mark is a nice, strong strike. In just the right light at just the right angle the ribbon looks to be a very, very pale blue. Otherwise, it looks to be a dirty/off white. Gold kanji grace the lid with the “Meiji/Taisho” stylization of 勣 (kun). Unfortunately this one did not come with a rosette. Oh well, you “can’t win ‘em all” as they say. Tracy Obverse: Reverse: M mark up close: Finally, the case lid:

SovPha, Amazing documents, photographs, and write-up. Thank you for sharing this wonderful information. All the best, Tracy

No One, Fascinating. Thanks for sharing. I will have to visit the website. All the best, Tracy

No One, Indeed, it looks like the mark on the above medal was not completely stamped. An interesting item to have in your collection. Tracy

No One, That is a splendid collection. Simply wonderful. The fact that you have a marked medal for females makes it even better! I must admit that I am jealous. I currently have the Showa Enthronement medal with M mark and its wrapper as well as the N mark as its wrapper. I am on the hunt for an S (Shōbidō) marked medal and its wrapper as well as a Y (Yamazaki) marked medal and its wrapper. There are also variations with the S marked on the ball instead of the ring and variations with the Y as convex instead of concave (which from the picture is what your medal’s mark looks to be). For all of the information see Medals of Asia at https://asiamedals.info/threads/makers-marks-of-japanese-orders-and-medals.14996/. All the best, Tracy

No One, Ahh, that would make sense. I hope that he weighs in. Tracy

Fascinating medal. I wish that the Wiki page had an explanation of the obverse design, especially the meaning of the fist. Tracy

Hello No One, Beautiful wear on the wings. Yes, definitely a Showa Kite. Besides the Kite shape, the number of apertures and the distance of the fourth (from below) aperture of the harness to the first tipping over of a harness are the tell tale clues. JapanX did a wonderful job explaining and showing this is his thread here: https://gmic.co.uk/topic/51228-classification-of-golden-kites-in-6th-and-7th-class/. All the best, Tracy

No One, Nice Kite and rosette. In the photo it appears as if the gilding on the Kite's wings has worn off, which to me gives it a nice appearance. All the best, Tracy

…and my second post for the day in this thread. This one is an Order of the Sacred Treasure 8th Class with the M mint mark of the Japan Mint. The button rosette also has a mark on its underside: ス (su). The case lid has gold kanji and the “Meiji/Taisho” stylization of 勣 (kun). That’s all for today. Tracy Obverse: Reverse, with the M visible: M close-up. Note that it appears to be not quite a full strike, although pretty darn close: Case lid:

I have finally obtained a Golden Kite with a mint mark. Below is a Golden Kite 7th Class with a “Showa bird” and the M mint mark on the reverse at 6h. The button rosette also has a mark on its underside: ス (su). I note that the lacquered case is of the six kanji variety instead of the seven kanji variety, so it is an “earlier” case. The medal is in great condition with a beautiful patina around the edges. Of course my somewhat crappy cell phone pictures won’t do it true justice. Enjoy. Tracy Obverse: Reverse, with the M mint mark visible at the 6h: Case lid:

No One, Thank you for the important and useful information. Too bad that the seller was so snotty. Tracy

No One, Since the original posts were from 11 years ago I checked JapanX's Medals of Asia website at https://gmic.co.uk/topic/57578-manchuran-incident-medal-wrapper/#comment-730981 to see if he had any updates on these types of wrappers. Alas, he does not. All the best, Tracy

No One, I hadn't noticed that about the parentheses. Excellent point, and it adds to the mystery. If I recall Peterson and Catalano, the 'National Border Incident War Medal' for Nomenhan is technically a Manchukou commemorative medal, but because the quality is so high and the design so similar, it is believed that they were made in Japan. Perhaps that's why the "made by the mint" on your wrapper is surrounded by parentheses and the wrapper for Dieter3's is not. Perhaps the parentheses were used to signify that although the award was made by the Japan mint, it was done so for a "foreign" country, so-to-speak. All the best, Tracy

No One, Interesting. The only ones that I've seen and have are also medal specific, instead of a generic "military service medal", or something like that. Tracy

No One, A very nice collection of ribbons. Tracy

No One, Thank you for the compliment on my collection. To me it often looks haphazard, and quite frankly more and more I get the feeling that it’s growing quite out of control. 😁 Those are two wonderful Orders of the Sacred Treasure with the ナ na hallmark. Are there any marks on the underside of the button rosettes? All the best, Tracy

Tony, That is a wonderful little collection. All very nice pieces. I like the Order of the Rising Sun 7th Class with the non-enamelled reverse. Now you need to pick-up an example of the 7th Class with an enameled reverse. 😀 On the War Medals, if mine have marks at all they are usually either on the very left or very right of the thin bar on the reverse. I compared your Taisho Enthronement Medal to mine, and on mine there is a shield on the circle in the center of the bar that attaches to the top of the medal. It is on both the obverse and reverse. See below. Your medal has the same, but from the pictures it looks like it was not fully struck. Your Red Cross Medal has a nice dai 大 on it and your other one a nice ka カ on it. For marks on Red Cross Medals, see Medals of Asia at https://asiamedals.info/threads/marks-of-the-japanese-red-cross-society-medals.15270/#post-245933. I find looking for and discovering hallmarks/maker’s marks on my Japanese Orders, Decorations, and Medals quite rewarding. Finding items for sale with such marks clearly identified in descriptions or photos has become my latest mission. All the best, Tracy Taisho Enthronement Medal Shield Design, obverse:

Greetings, I’ve been on a bit of buying tear lately and just received this lovely four rivet reverse Order of the Sacred Treasure 6th Class with the 幣 (hei) hallmark just below the 6h rivet. This mark is known to exist only on Sacred Treasures and the current time coordinates are December 1931 to September 1933. It is believed to be a mark of the Japanese mint, but so far definitive proof is elusive. See Medals of Asia at https://asiamedals.info/threads/mark-on-japanese-order-who-and-when.15113/. The ribbon is a very, very pale blue or dirty white with yellow stripes. It came with a button rosette that is light blue with yellow stripes and it has a ス (su) mark. The case has gold kanji and the “Meiji/Taisho” stylization of 勣 (kun). I was very pleased to have this piece join my collection. Enjoy. Tracy Obverse: Reverse: HEI mark close-up: Case lid:

Hello Muhammad, Welcome to GMIC. You will find many knowledgeable contributors always willing to assist. Indian Title Badges would be under the general forum https://gmic.co.uk/forum/252-great-britain-empire-colonial-including-south-africa-india-awards-militaria-history/. You might want to have a look around there. Below is a specific thread that I found. All the best, Tracy

No One, Great pictures displaying the patch in wear. Tracy

No One, Nice catch about the welding process. Tracy

pinpon590, That is a gorgeous award. Please pardon my ignorance, but could you identify it for me? Is that an "S" mark that I see on the reverse of the ball through which the ring is threaded? Tracy