paul wood

Very nice. Indian recruiting medal for WW1 The ribbon is plain green, Ssme as the volunteer long service. I have one with a named presentation watch to a Zaminder or local chief. Paul

Yep established 1908 by my favourite Danish king who died under most interesting circumstances. Paul

Can you tell me who he served with? Paul

Impossible to be certain without being in a group 4th or above. With miniature rosette denotes a grade above 5th. Even Earl Haig would have had an identical mini to this and he was obviously GC Paul

The 5th and 6th are The General Service medal 1918-62. 7th is the Army Long Service and Good Conduct medal (or as those who got it usually called it undetected crime medal). The regular army bar did not mean they had healthy toilet habits (even though the army served baked beans with every thing) but that they were professional rather than territorial soldiers. The last is the Army Meritorious Service medal. which was awarded for exemplary service over a long period, the majority of the recipients of this medal were senior NCOs and this medal was sparingly awarded. The full sized group would be several hundred of pounds. I assume it is an attributed miniature group. Paul

The Ripper hoaxer gave Sutcliffe a bit more time for his fun. Paul

3rd class or above. Paul

Sorry getting my British and US awards mixed up. Paul

While now over 45 years old Kerrigan's book is still as good as they come (although no use for post 73 US awards). Paul

Less disinformation in those days. Being in the numismatic trade (ie coins and medals). People ask advice as to the value of certain items. After giving my considered opinion I often get the reply "but on the internet it says....." i then reply "do you believe every word you read in the Bible" to which the reply is "Of course not: do you think I am stupid?". My reply is "yes If you believe everything you read on-line". I think there is more likely to be accurate information in the Bible than a lot of the rubbish printed on-line. These days it seems that if the internet says it is true it has to be. We are more gullible today than the most supersticious of medieval peasants. My few pennies worth of thoughts. Paul

Byrds was definitely a black widow according to Gale Hawkes and George Harris and his was a WW1 award. In WW2 he was busy molesting penguins. Paul

It is a WW1 DSC which happens to be darker than other issues of the DSC many were awarded posthumously hence the widow. Paul

When I was at Sotheby's we sold Byrd'sj (the Polar explorer) medals (1990) which included a black widow and a Tiffany gold MoH. Lovely to have handled undoubtedly genuine classics. I wish I hadn't been married and bankrupt at the time, there was a beautiful Tifanny diamond set polar bear tie pin which I seriously covered and which given the chance I would have proudly worn. Paul Bugger predictive text should have read coveted.

No problem whatsoever. Especially if the edge is inscribed SORU in Russian (COPY). There is no problem with copies as long as they do not pretend to be anything else. Paul

Muckaroon when it comes to the Naval medal you illustrate you cant beat a fully attributed "black widow" Paul At the end of the day the more valuable the item the better the fake. What really angers me is collectors who invest thousands in medals will not invest a decent amount of funds in research. Knowledge is power the more you learn the less likely you are to be screwed. If collectors spent 10% of their funds on research the forgers would have to work a lot harder That's my 4 rupees and 8 annas worth Paul

Muckaroon if you can find them there are some lovely US groups around. Trouble is,especially with some of the great war gallantry there are some very dangerous fakes so caveat emperor and buy as much quality research as you can afford $100 dollars in research can save you thousands in avoiding frauds. Paul

Gordon I agree. I collect to the Indian army either Indians, Anglo Indians, Portuguese indians. Many Sepoys, Naiks,and Halvidars are unresearchable however you can find out what their units were up to so you can get some idea of what was going on. Some of the N W Frontier campaigns were hard fought an unparalleled in their savagery. A Pathan gave no quarter but admired brave opponents, their hospitality was beyond belief and many an enemy was surprised to experience. Sorry I am being a boring old fart but with over 800 medals I will never be cured, I make a drug addict or alcoholic seem sane. Paul

Sorry about the spelling errors I hope the person who invented predictive text will spend eternity in hell in the worst agony imaginable

Gordon my opinion on US Gordon my opinion on US medals is like most non UK they are not named and therefore you have no idea what they did to earn them. My nephew bought a WW1 UK Victory medal in a junk shop for £2 ) Megan as a teacher you will understand, he researched the named recipient, spent time in Lincolnshire and Northumberland exploring parish records, actually ended up meeting (and as he put it stuffed with cake) descendants of the recipients. He ended up getting a distinction for his history project and is now destroying his liver in my alma mater Newcastle university. Not bad for a £2 piece of crap. ATB Paul

Anyone killed in buzkashi would have been given a hero's send off and there have been a good number of such incidents. A pox on the Bishop of Buenos Aires, typical of the Catholic church taking all the fun out of.life. Paul

Sorry the name of the film is the horsemen (1971) well worth a watch . I think I have watched it at least 8 times and I am sure I will watch it dozens of times in the future. Next to Zulu and the brilliant performance by Jack Hawkins it is my favourite film. Paul

The best film for buzkashi is the horseman starring Omar Sharif. It depicts Afghanistan in the last days of the monarchy and portrays the full violence of the game and proves that wrapping injured legs with pages of the Quran is not an efficacious cure. The sheep fights towards the end of the film takes some beating, however many a Kiwi and Taff has suffered a coronary from overexcitement. Paul

It's a buzkashi prize medal. Buzkashi is the Afghan national sport a sort of polo involving the securing of a goat carcass. It makes shinty and Australian rules seem like games for dainty girls. Mohammed Zahir Khan was the son of my avatar and hero Mohamned Nadir Khan , the only Afghan to defeat the British in the 3rd Afghan war. Paul

It is dated solar hejira 1328 CE 1950 and has the toughra of Mohammed Zahir Shah. It may well be a sporting prize medal. Paul

Afghani but I cant remember exactly what it is for Paul