Ed_Haynes

Medal for International Brigades in Spain, 1936-1939 With document to Hristov Pipperov Yanko, awarded 6 February 1975, decree # 462 See also: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=1245...eimler&st=4 and following posts.

Order of Labor / Oрден ha Труда Variety 2, 1977-89.

People's Order of Labor / Народный орден ha Труда Type 1, 1945-77.

Order of the ?Red Banner of Work? / Орден ?Червено Энаме на Труда?

Order of Labor

May we post PR Kampuchea (a.k.a. "Cambodia") awards here? Maybe better here that lost among the broader "Soviet" stuff??

Jubilee Medal "40 Years of Victory over Nazis" (1985)

Jubilee Medal "30 Years of Socialist Revolution in Bulgaria" (1974)

A single, undocumented, Orden "Banner der Arbeit", Stufe I, the 1974-?? variery (Bartel 6g).

Another Orden "Banner der Arbeit", Stufe II, group, to Wilhelm Katten, 1 May 1988. My Google efforts come up empty. Maybe oithers can do better?

Interesting. I shall withhold potentially divisive political comment.

Thanks OoV, this reminds me I had intended to post more . . . let me get to work!

Agreed. While the interests of museums (and societies) change (and those who collect coins really don't tolerate us much more than as deviant bastard cousins), I do feel sad that those who busted their butts (and wallets) to get this collection for the ANS now find their goodies being sold away. OK, the society will come out well and the awards will go to other (loving) homes, but somehow, something just seems, well, wrong, here. To be honest, part of it is that a good friend -- recently deceased -- gave a LOT of things to them (some in this sale, most in the next) in good faith. While I am temnpted by some of the Bukhara stuff, I'll just await the next sale to add some "ex-Spengler Collection, ex-ANS collection" items. Not sure about the "X". That seems a 19th-century collection-marking practice. Saw some of that the summer I worked at the Smithsonian. The whole show seems to me to be a very "numismatic" cataloging job. Done up by folks who know a lot about coins, but not much about medals. Still, some lovely items, and collected pre-WWII for the most part, so fewer provenance issues than usual. But . . . oh . . . the "condition issues" . . .

I'd doubt it, but in today's Europe, you never know . . .

Oh . . . sorry. ANS = American Numismatic Society -- they are selling their ENTIRE non-US medal collection (mainly gifted by society members from the late 19th century through the 1960s) - so sad M&E = Morton and Eden, the UK auction house, they (to the sure frustration of some US-based phaleristic auction houses?) are selling (in conjunction wioth Sotheby's) teh ANS collection in (I think) three parts - part 2 (25-26 October) is online at http://www.mortonandeden.com/ -- go to "Next Sale" shere you can get the catalogue as a PDF (2 MB), or http://www.mortonandeden.com/ - the color plates are separate at http://www.mortonandeden.com/ans2plates.htm (drool). The Tammys are lots 372-375. Two are illustrated http://www.mortonandeden.com/ans2plates/Plate2-36.jpg see it and drool. (BIGGGG.)

Nice one! A number of Tammys are coming along in the latest ANS sale at M&E, though many (like other medals in their collection) have not been kept well and seem to be in shoddy condition. A sad sale made all the sadder. I tremble at what we'll see in part 3 (my main interest).

Just happened to see this -- normally don't look in on this forum -- nice! Is it named or numbered?

There are those (Jeff?) more expert than I who I hope will respond. Other than a few family and "fringe" items, I don't "do" US medals. However: What is often forgotten is the large number of individual makers who produced US awards, rather more like French of German medals rather than like British awards. The variability of quality (from the beautiful to the laughable) and design over time and between various makers is bewildering and frustrating. It leads, as well, to the ready availability of items, especially of the lowest quality, at places like eBay or SOS. If, a spending legislation intends, all trade in US awards is stopped, things will change. Nevertheless, at its best, the LoM is lovely. As one of the award's functions was to be awarded to foreigners (who knew what attractive awards looked like), I guess it had to be.

Actually, miniatures and miniature groups are faked fairly commonly. Being unnamed, they are easy to fake, just like ribbon groups. The faking is made all the easier by jewelers and manufacturers who churn out miniatures of long-obsolete awards and awards that were never worn in miniature for the "collector market". Am I paranoid, Matt, hardly, just rational and observant of what is on offer. I was digging for images of the award, but as the interest here is more that of "reenactment" than of phaleristics, I guess there's no need to bother. If I find anything, I'll start a new thread over in "international", rather than here as if the award were "British". The order and its British recipients has been pretty well researched in the OMRS journal, and people may want to dig out their back issues of this for more information. The only problem with what has been published there is a lack of distinct treatment of the order as, first, a Hejazi and, later, Transjordanian/Jordanian award and, as usual, a narrow tendancy to see it as existing only in so far as it was awarded to Brits.

BARODA -- Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal This named on edge: "HAV. AMRITRAO MADHAVRAO MAHDIK. 1936". McClenaghan #59, p. 64.

DHRANGADHRA -- Rajyabishek Medal, 1942 - gold For the coronation of Maharaja Mayurdhvaj Singh in 1942. His Highness is still alive, the last KCSI and the last of ther "Ruling Princes". McClenaghan #113.

Since these are here "on home leave" this weekend, a few more. Apolologies for the naked medals but the ribbons are MUCH rarer than the medals themselves. HOLKAR (INDORE) -- Muntazim Bahadur, Class III Silver Medal of the 2nd Class These are immansely confusing. McClenaghan (#141, p. 151) traces just 36 awards, mainly to accountants, teachers, household officers, and pensioners.

If it makes us feel any better, the DM requirements were immensely confusing to people at the time too. It was established as, and the requirements drafted as, something like a "Defence of Britian Medal", essentially a "Blitz Medal". It was also a medal that Churchill meddled often and actively in, so the intricate inclusions and exclusions and conditions within conditions may not be such a surprise. As much as a micro-manager as he was, it is amazing he found time to lead a country in war. (For example, a four-page hand-written memo to the Committee on Honours and Awards in Time of War on what the difference was between the terms "clasp" and "bar" when they were being discussed for the various WWII medals -- he even took time to talk with the King specifically on this issue!!) As the war went on and spread and as more and more non-UK personnel got into the match, the qualifications for the DM were stretched and edited, but they always kept their UK focus (and, many thought, bias). Auckenleck, for example, explicitly attacked the qualifications as "racist" (his word, not mine, so don't blame me). This led to the creation of the various "commonwealth" service medals for India, South Africa, Canada, Australia, etc. as surrogate non-UK-specific Defence Medals (though, in some cases, you could have been awarded both). As I said, don't worry that the Defence Medal has confusing and mind-numbing qualifications, it was true at the time, it is true now. In an ongoing project on Indian WWII medals and their naming, I am probably spending 85% of my time just trying to disentangle the DM! For anyone with any interest in these, it is worth investing in a copy of "'Campaign Stars and Commemorative Medals Instituted For The 1939-45 War (The War Office, 11/6/1948)". You can get it through the National Archives (a.k.a. PRO). Go to: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/ . In the upper left corner, enter the PRO file reference: WO 279/557; click "Go to Reference"; then (on the right side) click "Request This"; then follow the instructions for either ordering it digitally (and having it emailed to you); or on paper, (and sent to you in the post). But do bear in mind that, beyond this, local governments made often extensive regulations that fine-tined and/or forther muddied what the Brits had concocted. In India, these run to something like 10-12 pages, in documents spread out across three different files of two different government departments in the archives.

And numbered . . . NICE! Though I'm not sure I'd consider the outstanding worker of people's education to be "unimportant"?! (Written in my real-world guise of a university professor .) We really do need to try to sort out the confusing R 01 to R 08 series.

Sure, but there was a serial number before it got remounted and there is ownership even for unnumbered medals. Absent solid provenance, you never know. Just hate to see real groups get broken up and replaced by manufactured (faked) "neo-groups". It happens, alas, in all phaleristic fields.