paul wood

I have handled imperial effigies for Nasr-ed-din, Muzzafar and Ahmed Shah and I know of a European collection that has a Muhammed Shah (a serious rarity!). The Fath Ali Shah is an absolute peach. Interestingly effigies made for Persian recipients tend to have coarser cut stones and frames than those given to foreigners, Probably rightly so as the imperial effigy was the most important part of the decoration for Persian recipients. Paul

The medals for the various participants of the 1862 exhibition came in 5 categories, Council Medal. Prize medal, Exhibitors Medal (for those who exhibited but did not win a prize) the Jurors medal and the Services Medal. The Services medal was award to those who were responsible for the setting up and organisation of the exhibition. Paul

It looks a particularly unpleasant fake that I would not touch with a 10 foot bargepole. Paul

Thanks for that Odulf, so it seems the Dutch between 1841-90 followed the British precedent with the Order of the Guelph between 1815-37 which was effectively a British Order. William IV was supposed to have said of some bigwig who bored him, Give him a Guelph and get rid of him. Paul

Well done Gavin, 74mm is the smallest I have ever seen a 1st-2nd Striped Tiger, Fourths vary from 64-67mm from my experience. Do you get to keep the sash? All the best, Paul

Looks kosher to me. Paul

Gavin I know it's a very long shot have you tried the OMSA ribbon bank to see if they have anything suitable or know someone who can produce a sensible length. Paul

Having only ever seen type 2s I know they always have a wire suspension but i have never seen a type 1 which I consider to be by far the rarest Victory medal (I have handled 6 Thai, 3 Brazil type 2 but never a Brazil type 1). Do any members own such a rare beastie, Paul

There is an exceptional Russian book produced in 2010, its ABEPC no 9 ISBN 978-5-7164-0581-3. It deals with world wide masonic insignia, well illustrated with text in Russian and English. Well worth getting a copy. All the best, Paul

On the medallic front there were gold medals issued as prizes for a) the Royal Military Academy Woolwich, b) Royal Military Academy Sandhurst © Royal Naval College Dartmouth. A friend of mine has gold Dartmouth medal with an unnamed D.S.C. to the recipient. All the best, Paul

Mervyn, Producing fantasy coins with Edward VIIIs head on it has been a long established business in the numismatic trade. The first was the London dealer Geoffrey Hearn who produced a series of fantasy commonwealth crowns in 1954. Then the London dealer Richard Lobel continued and expanded the trend in the 1980s and lastly the Patina collection produced around 2000. Original patterns and trial coins bearing the portrait of Edward VIIII issued dated 1937 are very sought after. One interesting story is the Edward VIII 12 sided 3pence, many of these were sent to vending machine companies in order to adapt their machinery, while they were supposed to be returned a very small number escaped and a few turned up in circulation. As a boy we all looked through our threepenny bits in the misguided hope of finding such a coin. One of these is worth many thousands of pounds. It is possible to get coins from British East and West Africa, Fiji and Papua New Guinea all bearing the name of Edward VIII but without his portrait and dated 1936.These are all reasonably common and can be purchased for no more than a few pounds, not bad for a genuine coin of Edward VIII. On a medallic note two Royal Victorian Medals were presented bearing the portrait of Edward VIII. One in a group was sold in the Spink sale of the Giordano sale in 2010 to Horace Crisp, the group realised £8,200 Paul

Mike, These are all recent productions commissioned by a British dealer in 1999 and struck in 2000-2001. A whole group of these issue were included in a Spink auction no 1298 11 July 2001. It was titled the 'Patina' collection. Great fun providing you didn't pay a huge amount for them but totally unofficial. Paul

My guess is Baden Artillery Regiment Jubilee badge. The F for Friedrich who was Grand Duke in 1856. All the best, Paul

Gavin, You stick with the eunuchs, I prefer the concubines, and a good hunting dog is good for giving you energy. Paul

Victor Canale was a sculptor and medal engraver.who was a prolific manufacturer and retailer of medals especially "art medals" around and after the great war period.Maybe some of our French members may have more details on him. He collaborated a great deal with the medallist Henri Dropsy and was a prominent member of the Societe Francaise des Amis de la Medaille. All the best, Paul

Also only next of kin can get service details from the PRO from this period. Paul

. Not necessarily. He could have joined just after the war and therefore missed out on any WWII medals and could have quite easily missed out on any other conflict. I have seen several similar groups in my time, nice thing to own. Paul

Buls, De Vigne-Hart Dutalis Fisch Heremans Walrauens Wolfers Paul

Government Camel Corps. Certainly existed. Paul

Most interesting, I have a pair to the Indian Bearer Corps. They served in Africa and as such unlike the Cape Coloured Labour Corps they received the bilingual Victory medal. I agree with Mervyn what you have is truly rare. I will be most interested to hear what research you come up with. Paul

Mervyn, Very nice indeed. I think the Royal Humane Society awards are some of the most under priced awards in the medal collecting field. These are gallantry awards in every sense of the word and in some cases the level of gallantry is truly amazing with the recipient putting his life on the line to save the life of a fellow or fellow human beings. To me these are every bit as amazing as bravery in the field awards and were the actions performed under battlefield conditions many would have earned high level gallantry awards. Thank you for sharing with us. Paul

Paul, Thank you for this thread. It is useful to have provenanced and dated pieces then there can be no doubt of the date of manufacture and one can base dating information on fact rather than conjecture (and I know it is very easy to have a theory and then create hypothetical information based on that.). Interestingly I see that some of the early awards are to Chinese Customs officials. Why would they have received them. I know they usually ended up with Double-Dragons or later Golden Grains, classes depending on rank, where the helping the Japanese to get things in to China that shouldn't have been there? All the best, Paul

Nice to see the case, is there an inscription on the lid or the upper lining? Paul

Megan these are Coronation jetons, the crown is an unofficial addition. The engraver was Avenir Grillisches Senior. They are recorded in gold (very rare), silver and bronze (both extremely common). Paul

Megan, there are three varieties of medal of which 122,000 were struck in dark bronze and were all designed by L Steinman and M. Gube, variety 1, Narrow bust with initials at base of obverse (Cyrillic L. S. R.) Cut by L Steinman, variety 2 slightly larger bust Cyrillic LS on truncation, variety 3 large bust with Steinman's signature in full on truncation, the piece illustrated is type 2. according to Diakov they are of similar rarity, it would however be interesting to compare a random sample of say 50 medals to see which turns up more frequently. A handful of each type are recorded in gold and later strikings (or novodels) are recorded in silver. Paul