TacHel

Very nice! Thank you for sharing. The lighting you use for your pics REALLY makes for great quality photography.

Agreed, you'd almost expect to see a palm between the two... Any small puncture holes invisible on the picture?

Actually, the clues are in the present crest of Paris. You'll notice 3 awards below the city crest, they were presented to the city (and not to the fire dept). L?gion d'Honneur - 9 October 1900 Croix de Guerre (14-18) - 28 July 1919 Croix de la Lib?ration - 2 April 1945 The L?gion d'Honneur is actually part of the city crest on your pin. This puts this particular article between 9 October 1900 and 28 July 1919 when the CDG was awarded. So the axes are definitely not Vichy. Hope this helps!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! Thank you VERY MUCH for that info. I'll go to bed a bit less ignorant tonight. :lol:

Rick, you literally freak me out! You found the pedigree of a German officer from over 100 years ago based on an old picture in under 45 minutes. DANG! For what it's worth... You impress the living "H" outa me! P.S. How are you at lottery numbers? ;)

Hi Doc! Baden? Yuk! Plainest medals, ugliest ribbons... Come on buddy! Both Prussia and Bavaria have great selections. With Bavaria you could go nuts for years on the Military Merit Order and Crosses alone. Saxony is also a great choice! But Baden? Even Lippe has a rather limited selection... Anyhoot... It's your dough my friend.

Forgive my ignorance but... Although I've seen the Order of the Red Eagle with a bow before, I have no idea what it means. Could you please enlighten me?

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. And if it is indeed a genuine article, I hope you fill this thread with high quality pics. It'll definitely be a learning experience for me.

Dang... I mistakenly thought the pics in the award case were clearer pics of the same award... I'm no expert, but dang, that picture of yours sets off alarm bells in the back of my head. I have never before seen this order with this kind of suspension going into the crown. I have never before seen this order with the outlying clovers split like that. I just reread your original post... This was sold as a copy then? DUH! (to me!) :P

This is what you saw... And keep seeing on evilbay advertised as the real thing. It is in fact a worthless piece of garbage. It's a merit award from the VOOV Combat Brotherhood veterans' organization. This is the ONLY (Russian Armed Forces / Defense Mininistry) award specifically for participation in combat operations. It's a breast badge worn on the right breast. NOTE: this would've been a really good post in the Russian section.

Spits at screen and turns beet red with envy! MAN! OH MAN! You LUCKY -(add your favourite insult here)- !! What an ABSOLUTE beauty!! Congrats!

Finding them is easy on Russian auction sites... Outside of Russia, good luck! And they're VERY DIFFICULT to get out of Russia proper. And they are getting VERY EXPENSIVE for only one reason, the law against exportation of such things... They're not really worth it, they really dished these out like hotcakes during 10 years in the Caucasus. The MMM?

Medal for Strengthening the Customs Brotherhood (Federal Customs Service)

Federal Courier Service Medal for Zeal 1st class Federal Courier Service Medal for Impeccable Service 2nd class

Medal For Service In The Submarine Force (Defence Ministry) Medal For Labour Valour (Defence Ministry)

State Decoration, Medal for Bravery Medal Of Colonel-General Dutov (Defence Ministry)

FSB (ex KGB) Medal For Strengthening of the Brotherhood of Arms FSB (ex KGB) Medal For Participation In Counterterrorism Operations

Instituted on 10 March 2006. Awarded to naval personnel for impeccable service associated with Navy submarines for 5 years or more, for bravery and courage shown in the performance of military duty or special combat missions; to civilian personnel of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, as well as other citizens of the Russian Federation who assist in fulfilling the tasks assigned to the Navy.

Gents, I'm all Googled out! Weeks of searching ROTC web sites just looking at pimply faces... I'm ready to give up. I'm told this medal is an ROTC award. If so, can ANYBODY show me the sucker with its proper ribbon? I would be very grateful!

I doubt it's from G?de, the quality is too high for a G?de piece. I've held G?de pieces and they cry out "crap", this piece, if it wasn't for the flaws in the suspension and top of the crown would be near impossible to tell apart from the real thing. I've also seen an EXACT duplicate of mine for sale from a "guru" dealer in Germany who was asking 250 EURO. He was (and still might be) trying to pass it off as a piece issued post November 1918 by the Prussian Awards Committee who supposedly kept issuing awards (that were recommended during the war) after the end of the war . I can't even remember how long I've had this at the bottom of a drawer... Years... And back it goes! :P

1914-15 = 1 1914-16 = 1 1914-17 = 1 1914-18 = 1

Question for you Rick... I have a spangenst?ck like that... They worth anything?

The Moscow Times Saturday, June 20, 2009 Moscow Gave Four Times More Hero Medals in Chechen War than in Afghanistan The Russian defense ministry has named 322 of its soldiers Heroes of the Russian Federation for their actions in the two Chechen campaigns, nearly four times as many Heroes of the Soviet Union (85) that its Soviet predecessor handed out in Afghanistan, a product of the intensity of the Chechen war and of awards inflation in post-Soviet times. According to an article in the current issue of "Sovershenno Sekretno," the Russian defense ministry presented 559 soldiers and officers with the title Hero of the Russian Federation between 1992 and the end of 2008. Of these, 322 were awarded to participants in the army's role in Chechnya. In addition to those in the military receiving this distinction, personnel from the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Emergency Situations also were named Heroes of the Russian Federation. Like the military until December 2008, few of these organizations have provided exact numbers. The FSB has never given them out, but the number of awards there must exceed 40, the magazine said, given that the names of 34 of them are known. And for the MVD internal troops, the number is at least 81 for the fighting in the North Caucasus, of whom 54 received the award posthumously. Thus, for the Chechen campaigns, more than 500 Russian personnel received this award, nearly six times as many that received the distinction of Hero of the Soviet Union for Moscow's effort in Afghanistan in the 1980s but, of course, far fewer than the 11,739 who received that award during World War II. In addition to the dramatic increase in the number of awards, "Sovershenno Sekretno" suggested, two other aspects are troubling. On the one hand, the percentage of senior people who did not directly participate in combat seems to have gone up as well, a situation that recalls the medal mania of Brezhnev's time. And on the other, some of the awards went to officials like FSB deputy director Vladimir Pronichev who was named a Hero of the Russian Federation for his role during the Nord-Ost terrorist incident, a case in which, as "Sovershenno Sekretno" recalls, 129 of the 130 who died were victims of the use of lethal gas by people under Pronichev's command. The general inflation in the number of medals that the Russian authorities have handed out is obvious, according to the article, but the exact numbers are impossible to check given that information about awards given even during the first Chechen campaign, from 1995 to 96, remain inaccessible to investigators, with officials refusing all requests for their release. The reason for this, the article continues, is that such statistics would be embarrassing either because they would allow people to see just how serious that conflict was, something the Kremlin did everything it could to conceal, or how commanders had used the conflict to hand out medals and thus advance its members. Despite official efforts to keep the lid on such information, some of it has leaked out. There is a reference in one order that in February-March of 1995 alone, "almost 1600" Russian officers and men were given the Order of Courage, a statistic that suggests that the fighting was extremely intense. That would mean some 21,500 such orders were given out during the first campaign. And given that the numbers on the medals for March 2000 ranged from 42,000 to 46,000, there must have been more than 20,000 such awards given between the two Chechen wars, yet another indication of either the seriousness of the conflict or medal inflation. The situation with regard to the awarding of medals appears to have become worse during the Russian campaign in Georgia, even though overall statistics remain classified. During that effort, which Moscow has called "the five-day war," the magazine reported, at least 19 officers and soldiers were named Heroes of Russia and 263 were awarded the St George Cross. But it is not only in the military were the "golden rain" of orders appears to be intensifying. Last Friday, on Russia Day holiday, Interfax reported, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, was awarded the star of the Order of St. Aleksandr Nevsky "For Labor and the Fatherland". While giving awards to church leaders has become increasingly frequent in post-Soviet Russia, this presentation is in some ways anomalous. While he has been declared a saint by the Orthodox Church, Aleksandr Nevsky in fact formed an alliance with the Muslim Mongols to oppose the expansion of Catholic influence into Russia.

Isn't that a 15 year NCO's cross Rick?

Looks OK... Though it's the first time I see a recipient of both medals for the Red Eagle and Crown Orders... Quite interesting actually.