sdesember

This was given to me as a gift during one of my trips to Munich. The person knew that I collected medals and told me that the medal was a gift from his friend and since it was just laying around collecting dust at his home, he thought that he would just give it to someone who would appreciate it more. The gentleman was of a Spanish descent from the Canary Island. I tried to ask him on how the medal came into his possession, but he didn't elaborate much more other than that it was a gift from his friend.

The medal was awarded to those who took part in fending off a failed attempted coup to overthrow the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo Molina (1891-1961), also famously known as "El Jefe", in the June 1959 landing by a group of militants from the Dominican Liberation Movement, who were dressed in Dominican Air Force uniforms¹ and landed at the Constanza Airport.

The obverse of the medal is inscribed with five stars (signifying Trujillo's rank?) and the words "Constanza Heroismo y Lealtad" which translates to Constanza (the airport's name) heroism and loyalty.

The reverse of the medal bears the Dominican Republic's coat of arms which carries the national's slogan of "Dios, Patria & Libertad" (God, Country & Liberty) with the name of the country "Republica Dominicana" at the foot of the arms. Further down, there is a repetition of the inscription of the country's name, "Republica Dominicana " "1959 Era de Trujillo" (during Trujillo's regime, the period was also known as The Era of Trujillo, hence the inscription - "Era de Trujillo").

¹medal-medaile.com

My contribution...(l to r) Hanseatischekreuze Hamburg, Hamburg (reverse) & Bremen.

Hello,

Just a question, why would there be no umlaut on the "a" in Kampfe on the obverse? My German is inadequate at best, but there's a "kampfe" which means "warlike", an adjective compared to Kaempfe, a noun word in plural form which I'd think would be the correct form for the medal. Many thanks!

Ok, found a site to host my images, so let's try again. Hopefully, they will show.

The then Generaloberst von Hindenburg with his Generalstab

The reverse of the postcard:

The reverse:

...any suggestion for a free web site hosting that anyone could recommend. I'm getting tired having to resize these photos to a size that is no longer healthy nor pleasureable to see for the eyes. Thanks!

2. photo

Going back to my dormitory from a Saturday's afternoon swim, I passed a small fleamarket. It must have been 5 or six times I passed this fleamarket before everytime I went out on Saturdays for a swim. I've never paid any notice before nor had any interest to visit until today as it, from afar, already looked like old houseware-junk-r-us fleamarket. What a nice little surprise to find these old postcards of the Kaiser visiting Bern in 1912 which I thought it'd be neat to buy since I'm in Switzerland.

Photo 1: The Kaiser & the Swiss Bundespraesident Ludwig Forrer

Here's mine, w/o marking, on a medal bar:

Thank you all for the replies!

Don't know why the above images didn't show after editing???

I just acquired this Class 3, Order of Glory and am having difficulty matching the type as it appears this Order, unlike the Red Star, is not typed according to the batch issue number on soviet-awards.com. Could you guys help? Many thanks!

Cap Polonio almost suffered the same fate as a ship called L?beck that I perchanced came upon in my research on another topic (Boye, Leutnant zuer See - Reserve). Almost...that is that it was being traded around as a war-thropy as part of Germany's reparations to, first, the American then to the British after the Great War.

It appeared Cap Poloino was scrapped in 1935 (?), according to this article and parts of its interior was sold off and now, they reside in a hotel in Pinneberg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany:

http://schiffe.free-25.de/Polonio.htm

(Some B&W photos of the ship are there too.)

Web page of Hotel Cap Polonio:

http://www.cap-polonio.de/

Braune Messe is a boycott against purchasing goods from Jewish owned businesses. It started after the Machtergreifung and soon became an organized event in Germany where your tinnies might be purchased by the population to show their support. The slogan of the Braune Messe is "Dem deutschen K?ufer deutsche Waren in deutschen Gesch?ften" which essentially translates "For the German Buyers, German Goods in German Establishments". The tinny with Cap Poloino on it, thus might represent a sponsorhip by the owner of that cruise ship to show their support of this boycott by the issuance of the tinny with their ship's name on it. Check out this web page:

http://www.adolf-reichwein-schule.de/315.0.html

Thanks to all for the feedback! Glad to know it's a good one... now on the hunt for the face behind that s/n...

I'm on a tiny cell phone comparing the sevens & the eights, they look similar, don't they? Something 'bout the metal alloy of this batch that is softer and thus easily worn out than the other batches. Many thanks to Bill Garvy for posting your speciman, much appreciated!

...for post #7

...for post #6

This is to replace post #4:

I can't see the last four pictures. If you want, you can upload them here on GMIC so you won't have to worry about expiring links and the like.

ok, I was linking the images to my google's Picasa urls which obviously now expired...terribly sorry for the mess guys. Would not mind if the mod re-insert the following links to replace the above missing photos (post # 8, hopefully now they will show):

Close-up of the almost defaced CCCP (hopefully from natural wear, not someone's buffing-wheel):

...the inscription:

...another:

last one:

Here's the obverse:

I agree, the reverse does look a little strange. I don't actually have an ORS of this variation to compare, but below is a picture from Soviet-screwbacks.com. The serial number is not in the same style.

Do agree the seven in particular is not the same. I'd have thought they would all be the same (?) considering issued from the same year-awarding batch (?). The Monetny Dvor mint marking also is not as defined as the RedMaestro's example. Although, compared to the example here (http://www.soviet-awards.com/digest/redstar/RedStar3.htm), Figure 10, the mint markings, they look the same. Should I start panicking now...perhaps?

The reverse looks funny to me... perhaps it is the lighting?

Yes, it does...on second look. That's just bad photography! Here's a new second look w/depth:

A type II, variation vii, hopefully a good one (my first purchase) has worn out obverse side (not sure if natural or otherwise?), s/n not found either in the soviet-screwbacks.com or soviet-ordersforum. S/N is 776,898 (award batch range of 10/8/44 - according to Rick's list). Feedback on originality & info of s/n are so much appreciated. (PS: if larger/high-res.photos needed, will oblige later, must get chow NOW...) Some photos below: