Dave Danner

From the Empire of Japan, the Order of the Chrysanthemum:

Also from the Empire of Brazil, the Imperial Order of the Southern Cross. This decoration was redesigned and continued by the Republic of Brazil.

And the star of the Order of Pedro I:

From the Empire of Brazil, the Order of Pedro I:

In the Imperial German Orders forum, I recently posted some pictures of the orders of Dukes Ernst I, Ernst II, and Alfred of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. They included quite a few rarities, such as the Prussian Order of the Black Eagle with the Garter of the Order of the Garter. But there were also quite a few nice and rare orders from other countries besides the Imperial German states, so I thought to start a thread here in case you missed them. Here are the main images of all the decorations: Duke Alfred: http://home.att.net/~david.danner/militaria/coburg02.jpg http://home.att.net/~david.danner/militaria/coburg01.jpg http://home.att.net/~david.danner/militaria/coburg03.jpg Dukes Ernst I and Ernst II: http://home.att.net/~david.danner/militaria/coburg04.jpg http://home.att.net/~david.danner/militaria/coburg05.jpg http://home.att.net/~david.danner/militaria/coburg06.jpg First is possibly the rarest - the Royal Order of Kamehameha I of the Kingdom of Hawaii, founded in 1865 and only awarded until 1886:

I believe that I have an extra metal plate in gold. Shoot me a PM.

Here are what they had on display of the decorations of Dukes Ernst I and Ernst II:

The home of the other family besides the Hohenzollerns with a strong connection to Britain: Veste Coburg above the city of Coburg. The orders belonged to Ernst I, Ernst II and Alfred, Dukes of Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha. As I mentioned, they were there along with a few others. Here are some of Duke Alfred's, including his baton as an Admiral of the Fleet of the Royal Navy.

All in one place, along with a few others. I saw them here:

Finally, there is one more Star of the Order of the Garter:

And then there's, well, the Star of the Order of the Garter:

Technically the wrong forum, but how about the Star of the Imperial Russian Order of St. Andrew with the Garter of the Order of the Garter?

And while we're at it, the Star of the Saxon Order of the Rue Crown with the Garter of the Order of the Garter:

And, for that matter, the Star of Hessen-Darmstadt's Order of Ludwig with the Garter of the Order of the Garter?

For that matter, how often do you see two?

Apologies for the quality of the pictures, but how often do you get to see one of these? The Star of the Order of the Black Eagle with the Garter of the Order of the Garter:

Rick is right about the Bulgarian: otlichen strelets = excellent rifleman. I'm not sure what the VPO is, probably one of those umbrella organizations, but Pazardzhik is a city in Bulgaria. The Hungarian badge says "for national defense".

It is the Nişan-ı İftihar, or Order of Glory/Order of Honor, from the Ottoman Empire.

The Verdienst- and Anerkennungsmedaillen were civil decorations. I have never seen one with a "1917" clasp and I don't remember seeing a file on such awards in the Rudolstadt archives, but I might have missed it. The Sondershausen archives refer to awards of the Verdienst- and Anerkennungsmedaillen between 1912 and 1918, but don't refer to any clasp.

Geschichte des 2. Garde-Dragoner-Regiments Kaiserin Alexandra von Russland 1860-1902: http://books.google.com/books?id=SVMRAAAAYAAJ If you can't access the full copy of the book, let me know. To avoid potential overseas copyright issues, Google sometimes limits non-U.S. access to the full text of the books it scans. It is 8.1 megabytes, so I should be able to download it and host it on my website for you to download.

"La noblesse fran?aise au champ d'honneur 1914-1915-1916" and "La noblesse fran?aise au champ d'honneur, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918": Does anyone by chance know if these books include citations, or just the date of award of various decorations?

The 2. GDR's World War I regimental history may be found here, in four PDFs: http://www.lwg.uni-hannover.de/wiki/2.Gard...agoner-Regiment

No 1914-15 1914-16 - 1 1914-17 - 1 1914-18 - 1

The Croix du Combattant wasn't created until 1930, so if it's there then there probably should be an Interallied Victory Medal. Maybe there was a third row with the Victory and something else like a UNC Medal or a Verdun Medal.

Turns out I don't have a silver in this style, but a gold. Here is a close-up.