oamotme

Try,

http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/dept/coins...on/index13.html

The Watson Collection is quite a find - this piece also has a concave reverse.

Owain

Over the past few years a number have been for sale in the London DNW auctions - all make prices in excess of $1,000. I seem to recall that the one on display at the Mahdi's museum in Omdurman is a gilded example (there is one also at the Ftizwilliam Museum in Cambridge) and had been awarded to the Bishop of Khartoum but my memory is vague on this.... I believe that the inscription - not clear on this example reads to the effect "Defence of Khartoum" and the year - but I would need to check my notes.

Owain

The Arabic on the collar badge, sash badge and breast badge appears to read "Al Hussain Bin Abdullah", and the three links read, right to left "The Collar of Al Hussain Bin AlI"

Regards,

Owain

There are three versions of this medal - Army, Poilce and Prison - only differentiated by the ribbon and all made by Spink. The one you illustrate bears on the obverse the inscription "Republic of Sudan" - I am not sure if there is a "Democratic Republic of Sudan" version, but I suspect so.

Owain

I suspect as much chance as you will have of heairng church bells in Riyadh......

Owain

There is a picture of this in the Spink issued handbook but I will have to get home first before providing further detail.

Owain

Yes there are these two version but the 2nd type has the name "Fouad Al Awal" (Fouad the First) so I would suggest that , whilst Hussain Kamel authorised new issue of the medal by the time it came to be manufctured Fouad had succeeded him as Sultan in 1917 (?)- I believe Hussain Kamel died after a diner party but I digress....

Owain

Also good to note that the Khedive's Sudan medal (2nd issue ) is of the 2nd type - i.e. with the name Fouad Al Awal (Fouad The First) who succeed Hussain Kamel in 1917(?) as Sultan and later (1923?) became King Fouad.

Owain

I have a 1st Class, 1st Type Garrard cased set - the order is in silver only - I supect the gilded issue illustrated is a 2nd type by Spink. The inscription reads "Al Nilain" (the Two Niles) - similar to Bahrain (Two Seas)

Owain

I went to a wedding in Khartoum in 1999 and browsed the shops - few and far between but had some modest success and flew back to Saudi with medals. Customs are now, it seems, a bit more attentive!

Your comments of pricing are most valid and indeed demand by a Westerner immediaetey pushes prices up - this has beecome all to apparent with Iraqi awards. My vistis to Yemen as a lone individual have had the same result and I find that the only real way of dealing with inflated prices is to be preapred to walk away! However the collector usualy find this difficult and we are seen as an economic opportunity for the local traders.

Regards,

Owain

The sash badge is the Order of Distinction (Al Imtiaz) 1st type with rhino suspension and the breast star is the Order of the Republic, 2nd type with the inscription "Democratic Republic of Sudan".

Owain

This is from a Police & Prisons series of awards (Obverse "Sudan Police and Prison Force"; Reverse - "For Great Service") and to my mind is contemporary with the Governor General's military series. I have a Bravery Medal of similar design - alas unamed - image to follow. I believe the manufacturer could well be the Royal Mint but I have no firm evidence of this - a copy of the annual reports back to the 1920's would be nice!

Regards,

Owain

Gentlemen,

I originally posted this under Militaria when it should more properly have been in this forum:

On Thursday in the souk in Riyadh I purchased a 2.95 inch Vickers-Maxim (I think) brass shell case dated 1916 - a chain and lid had been affixed to allow for carriage and storage of small coffee cups. I believe that this gun was only used in "colonial" conflicts. Is there any way of ascertaining whether such artillery pieces were used by Lawrence & Co during the Arab Revolt?

Many thanks,

Owain Raw-Rees

Gentlemen,

On Thursday in the souk in Riyadh I purchased a 2.95 inch Vickers-Maxim (I think) brass shell case dated 1916 - a chain and lid had been affixed to allow for carriage and storage of small coffee cups. I believe that this gun was only used in "colonial" conflicts. Is there any way of ascertaining whether such artillery pieces were used by Lawrence & Co during the Arab Revolt?

Many thanks,

Owain Raw-Rees

The anodised beret badge

The RWF is one of the six Minden Regiments who are, I believe entitled, to wear a rose to commemmorate the victory at Minden in 1759. However the RWF do not wear a rose on Minden Day, 1st August, as the RWF badge has a rose at the bottom centre hence the Minden Rose is worn every day of the year or at least was until the RWF merged with the RRW and became the Royal Welsh Regiment.

Owain Raw-Rees

A ribbon bar from Yemen

Sorry, I should have identifed these - all YAR, as follows:

Order of Merit, Order of Seventy

Order of Honour, Order of Duty, Order of Heroism

25th, and 20th Anniversary of 1962 Revolution, Order of Service

Confusingly these appear to have all been reversed as the order of precedence would be more correctly right to left.

I have a draft on the PDRY complete (some 30 pages without illustrations) and just about ready for JOMSA. The YAR and RoY are work under progress - frustrating to say the least. JOMSA have already published an article on the early awards 1964-7.

Owain

eBay presently has a series of modern Yemeni medals on offer out of Lebanon.

I was surprised to see three different versions of the 20th Anniversary medal.

Whilst the medals are being sold through Lebanon I believe they came from Sana'a in these formats and the supplier in Yemen has mounted a number of commemorative medallions onto military medal ribbons and inded some of the ribbons are on the incorrect medals.

Regards,

Owain

The first one Dave shows is a puzzle. (1) Maybe the "1000" is the 1000 Rials it may once have sold for? (2) The medal is the same Order of War Wounded I have shown. (3) But the ribbon doesn't match; I thought I had notes on this ribbon, but need to look more.

The second is easier:

Order of the Earth'

Awarded for agriculture.

Ed,

The ribbon, green, of the Order of the War Wounded in your illustration is correct. The second award is the Order of Devotion, third class I think, and the blue ribbon for the War Wounded should be be more properly with the Order of Devotion - the blue ribbon is the thrid class ribbon.

Owain

PEOPLES' DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF YEMEN -- Military Service Medal

Extremely tentative identification.

Ed,

This is the PDRY Medal of the War of Liberation- of Soviet manufacture.

Owain

PEOPLES' DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF YEMEN -- Medal for Courage

Apologies for the naked medal.

Ed,

This and the next medal are from the 1964-67 period of the YAR - instituted by or for President Sallal under the recommendation of Nasser and nmanufactured by Bichay - the full series is as follows:

Order of Sheba - one class sash, etc

Order of mareb - five classes

Order pf Bravery - medal in silver and bronze

Medal of Liberation - medal in silver only

With the retreat of Egyptian forces from Yemen the sereis became obsolete and the YAR instituted its "own" series in 1971 headed by the Order of the Republic.

Owain

ARAB REPUBLIC OF YEMEN -- Medal of the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Revolution of 26th September

To commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 1962 Revolution.

In addition to the medal, there is a rather distinctive silver enameled pinback ribbon bar associated with the award, 35 mm x 6 mm, divided into three enameled bands (5? mm, 9 mm, 5? mm) of (left to right) red, white, and black. In the center of the central white band is a black cicled with a five-pointed green-enameled star on a silver background bearing the silver number "25".

Established: 1987? May have been manufactured by ECC Group GMBH (K?ln, Germany)?

Obverse: A 40 mm circular silvered medal, within a starburst border with a scroll at the bottom with an Arabic inscription, a hand with a raised torch with Arabic inscription to left and right. Suspended by a ring from a silver pinback brooch bar, 40 mm x 13 mm, bearing the fully vocalized Arabic inscription "The Arab Republic of Yemen".

Reverse: A three-line Arabic inscription.

Ribbon: 36 mm, red, white, and black stripes with a thin central stripe of green; red 10 mm, white 7 mm, green 2 mm, white 7 mm, black 10 mm. As described above, the ribbon hangs from an ornamental suspender with an Arabic inscription.

In this series there are as follows:

20th Anniversary of the YAR

25th anniversary of the YAR

30th Anniversary of the YAR - ribbon only

Unification of RoY - ribbon only

1Oth Anniversary of the RoY

Owain

ARAB REPUBLIC OF YEMEN -- Order of Service

Military award.

Established: By Resolution No. 1 of 2 January 1973.

This is the first series, second type of this award 1971 onwards - this first type has the map of the Yemen Arab Republic oulined on the medal and the script runs circular to the edge of the centrel design.

Owain

ARAB REPUBLIC OF YEMEN -- Order of Duty

Military award. Also referred to as the "Medal of Duty".

Established: By Resolution No. 1 of 2 January 1973.

This is the second series of this award - post 1990 unification - the first series is similar to the Order of Duty illustrated by Ed.

Owain

Good morning from Riyadh,

I hope the note below is of interest - bling indeed.

Owain

This Order, manufactured by Royal Insignia of Singapore, was only relatively recently instituted, becoming the UAE's highest national honour and primarily for Heads of State. The award is presented in a red leather case. A recent award was made on 27 November, 2003 when the order was presented by Shaikh Maktoum of Dubai to Joseph Sepp Blatter, President, of FIFA in recognition of his efforts in serving football. The article notes "the order is considered to be of the highest level and conferred on monarchs and presidents of countries". More recent awards have been made the rulers of Bahrain and Kuwait. Prior to the institution of this new Order the senior award of the UAE had been a single class award - the Order of Unity

Collar

Obverse A chain of fourteen links, of 18 carat gold, bearing various designs relating to the U.A.E. The central link from which the badge is suspended bears the arms of the U.A.E., being a twin masted dhow. The total weight of collar and badge is 800 grams.

Badge

Obverse A circular medallion, 85 mm in diameter, of 22 carat gold, bearing the Arabic inscription "Zayed" in precious stones. The badge and suspension link are encrusted with a large number of precious stones

Marquise cut emeralds

Rubies

Emeralds forming the name "Zayed"

Diamonds of different sizes.

Total gems 1,013 total carats 33.77

Megan, Ed, et al,

Off the top of my head:

O.of Shaikh Issa - 5 classes plus collar and replaces the O.of Khalifa as Bahrain's premier award - maufactured by Spink

O.of Abdulaziz, manufactured by Bertrand - since my JOMSA article I have "discovered" at some stage the grades of order were re-instituted as as follows:

Badr Collar - muslim heads of state

Abdulaziz collar - other heads of state

Sash of the 1st rank - green with yellow edge stripes

Sash of the 2nd rank - yellow with green edge stripes

Excellent grade - green with yellow edge stripes

1st to 4th class - green with yellow edge stripes

Regards,

Owain