Ed_Haynes

Perhaps . . . but they are the awards of the Nation he served. Not some foreign country. As far as design . . . some are better . . . some worse. But that is as aestheic and political call, both?

Suspect it will go home, Darrell, back to the Motherlland. Though I have to hope Igor still has it at OMSA, so I can "feel it up".

The end to phase one of the PDFing. http://faculty.winthrop.edu/haynese/VBL1-5.pdf http://faculty.winthrop.edu/haynese/VBL1-6.pdf http://faculty.winthrop.edu/haynese/VBL1-7.pdf More traditional stuff yet to come.

See Antonio's http://www.coleccionesmilitares.com/medallas/texto/msp.htm ????

There was a Spanish wound MEDAL, awarded both by the Spanish government and by the fascist rebels. Is this what you mean?

Thanks! Well . . . I lied . . . a little. Not an entirely "hypothetical" question. See: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=2326 As he didn't live to receive his second Red Banner, the question is more "moot" than "hypothetical", but . . . .

Just have your medal guy find several sets of this . . . .

Now you know what to look for

Hypothetical: 1- Recipient awarded the RSFSR Red Banner. 2- Recipient then awarded the USSR Red Banner. Question: Would (should, could) the second Red Banner have been a "2"? Sorry, a stupid question, I know.

Absolutely. And an interest break in policy in publishing of a SAS award.

Yes, one of the (probably) thousands of regimental medals, some nicely made, some historically interesting, all quite unofficial, all undocumented and unresearched.

For those who can stand any more about this group, I am in the process of getting complete translations of the mountain of documents. When done, I'll share the results here. In the interin, if anyone wants to see the documents, here are the PDF files I have done to date: http://faculty.winthrop.edu/haynese/VBL1-1.pdf http://faculty.winthrop.edu/haynese/VBL1-2.pdf http://faculty.winthrop.edu/haynese/VBL1-3.pdf http://faculty.winthrop.edu/haynese/VBL1-4.pdf Be aware and be warned that these are BIG files (well, all PDF files are large, but ).

My guess is that he was a civilian administrator of some sort (though not police) in pre-war Palestine, went into uniform for WWII and didn't escape before getting dragged off to Malaya. When the rolls for the "Palestine" clasp come available (soon?) answers may come. Until then, all we can do is guess. Though checking a pre-war Palestine civil list might be an interesting exercise.

This is the medal you mention, Owain, right? The Nut al-Rafidain / Medal of the Two Rivers. And what (little) I think I know. As it didn't last long, this may explain the rarity?

How much of the problem is that while everyone knows what the Rafidain was, no one knows the other, rarer and more interesting, awards. I, too, have thought the Faisal should be more common that it seems to have been, but I dare say most recipients either fled or became distinctly unpopular (and some became dead) after the revolution. The only one I have ever seen is with a family that settled in the US after the revolution. As far as I have seen, the medal of the order did in fact end with the end of the monarchy. From what I have seen, it was mainly used as a gift to be distributed when the king was visiting overrseas. Thetre was an especially nice one in a British palace hanger-on's group a few years back (Spink?). When teh monarcvhy ended, these reciprocal visits ended and there was no functional need for the medal?

Until you get promoted, the small image size will be a problem. Why not scan the documents a piece as at time, in partial page scans. I, too, fear what you have given isn't going to be at all legible.

But when you consider what, say, a Victoria Cross group sells for, this really is a bargain. (For example, DNW sold a VC group in September 2006 for ?180,000!)

So true, Owain. We are as yet a long long way from having any sort of established market values for any Middle Eastern ODM, though auction results (and you are righ to redirect our attention to the ANS sales) can give us a sense of what some damn fool was willing to pay for a specific item on a gven day. We may be geting close, as some items (mainly Iraqi) are now (for obvious reasons) coming to the market in significant quantity. Yet in the absence of a good reference work (hint, hint) the field won't and can't yet congeal. Yet, once that reference book is out, people will collect these things, and we'd all better have our personal collections under control before that book appears. Oh, all the moral dilemmas! In the interim, we just have to decide, on an individual basis, what a given item is worth to us on a given day. I, too, feel happy underpaying for common stuff and overpaying for the rare items. And I agree that $2000 is too much for the bauble that sparked this discussion, no matter how pretty an item is. That the vendor can and probably will sell it for that much is his good luck but there are many WaR sets about. Show me a nice Order of Faisal I / Wisam al-Faisal al-Awwal set though . . . !

Owain is, of course, and as always, right. The WaR has the unfortunate fate of being visually distinctive, of being fairly common, and of being emblamatic. It was awarded frequently enough that specimens exist in reasonable supply. And I also very much agree that it is consistently overpriced, probably no place more so than by enterprisiong merchants in Iraq today, trying to make money from the occuipying troops.

And, just for comparison, the 14 year service medal.

On the NCC see http://nccindia.nic.in/ where it says or http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/LAND-FORCES/NCC/ or even http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Cadet_Corps_(India)

And, finally.

Bad lighting, but I like the image.

And.

And.