Ed_Haynes

Just to add a few to Bob's list (though his use of non-standard translations of names makes this an uncertain process): Sukhbaatar 684 - 15 October 1969 Red Banner of Labor 1423 - 24 December 1959 Combat Valor 1552 - 29 September 1964 Polar Star 822 - 23 September 1946 6335 - 24 May 1950 11340 - 18 May 1965 Medal of Combat 4312 - 8 July 1947 19346 - 24 September 1984 Medal of Labor 10328 - 30 August 1956 Friendship 1761 - 12 November 1968 Virgin Lands 1300 - 24 October 1979

See: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=3038

Star Trek. Original series. I am sure THIS has made it into every world language by now?

As Spock would say: FASCINATING!! Thanks, all.

Bravo, Rick. When we do such research, we stand on the shoulders of those researchers who came before and bridge from the past to the future in the task restoring the lives and histories of those who were and are the owners of these shiny things of which we are mere custodians.

Very nice indeed. Many thanks! It is good to see Japanese awards treated as Japanese awards and not as some sideshow of "Axis". More, please!!

I had put up some images of the Royal Arsenal Museum (T?jhusmuseet) from my last trip to Copenhagen over at: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=7393&st=7

That's what I thought. In Russian. This is why I posted this here and in our Soviet forum too. The silence over there is deafening.

I don't like it, not one bit. And a fairly crude fake! Thanks for posting!

Thanks, Jan. I hadn't bothered with the unnumbered/untraceable medals, in any case there'd be no end to that. I also hadn't gone into the lower level "herors" (how odd it feels to write that). Had I done that, I could also add the vodka-drinking truck-driving unnamed hero on p. 28, with his Lenin. I probably should have included Lkhagvasuren's ORS and have edited the list above accordingly. My (unfulfilled) hope was to add some enlightenment on the high-end Soviet orders (Suvorov, Kutuzov), but the silence has been deafening. Thanks for the help, Jan!

I suspect that was the sole Mongolian "guest cosmonaut" and I doubt it is in anyone's possession (except his). Information, please, Bob?? Strangely, for such a good friend, Choibalasan never got a HSU. Maybe he just died too early? And, for all the doo-dads he made up to give Brezhnev, Tsedenbal never got one either. How's THAT for gratitude?!

An interesting, though unremarkable medal, with a MOST REMARKABLE maze of devices for the ribbon. Thanks for the post! Expansion, please . . . ???

Agreed, agreed. I just wish we knew more with some basis in serious research in primary sources!!! Usually, auction houses are poor sources for things outside their focus (and often not so good even there).

Yes, and that is why I'd rejected the Nishan-i-Ilmi -- but, who knows. See: http://www.4dw.net/royalark/Persia/Orders/ilmi.htm Yet, at least from what Buyers has, it doesn't feel 100% right. 1st class - 9 points 2nd and 3rd class - six-armed "cross" 4th class - medal He describes the 1st class:

If he got it in 1919, I'd be surprised to see it on the MIC card. And, while I have NO CLUE how the RAF did such things, the unit war diaries sometimes include MSM or even MiD recommendations (at least for the Indian Army). More to seek at the PRO!

While your point is well taken, Michael, I'd submit that, in WWI, the MiD (like the DSO) was far more ambiguous than it sounds (or, perhaps, should have been). Maybe the US's Bronze Star (or, to make a reference meaninfgul only to us two) India's Sena Medal are useful comparisons to the WWI immediate MSM and, later, to the BEM.

A good example, during WWI (especially), the MSM (for all services) existed right on that line between low-level gallantry and general good-boy-dom. You wonder why a MM or MiD wouldn't do it? It says something that these immediate MSMs were phased out when the BEM came to fill that same ambiguous niche.

Right . . . the real tragedy is that some collector, probably a new collector, will bid on this frass and someone will be unlucky enough to win the misbegotten things. After two or three such "collecting" experiences, I wonder what this new collector will move on to? Beanie Babies? When we -- the silverbacks -- bemoan the lack of a new phaleristic geteration -- harumpf harumpf -- maybe we need to find the answer at http://www.ebay.com??

So sad.

Yep, Louis Vuitton will sue the stuffing out of eBay, Kaiser Wilhelm or Stalin won't.

The difficulty is, of course, that there are no laws against selling fake material (and who proves this anyway? = caveat emptor) in any of the countries where eBay functions. There are laws against the display of Nazi symbols in many of the countries where eBay operates, so these are banned, no matter how much so many may whine about it. Remember that eBay is a company, profit is center-stage, issues of law matter a great deal, ethics and morality are irrelevant, and "collector values" do not even enter into the discussion.

The RAF MSM was established in June 1918 and until 1928 (and especially during the Great War) was awarded as an immediate award for individual acts of gallantry (in the "field", not "flying"), not in the presence of the enemy. The RAF MSM was suspended from 1928 until 1977 when it was revived under the conditions which Paul has outlined, awarded for 27 years of meritorious service (20 after 2002). No more than 70 RAF MSM can be awarded in a given year, so the accumulation of years of service is merely a qualifying fact and, beyond the mere time in uniform, significantly high levels of merit had to be demonstrated. As your grandfather's was awarded in 1919, it would have been the first (George V) variety, awarded for gallantry. Finding the recommendations -- I am told -- is quite tricky, however, as few are said to survive in the NA/PRO. Not clear whether you have the medal, but it is a nice one!

And, maybe, their very recent spread is part of the answer to what they are? Especially as they seem to sell when they come forward??

No., no. Nothing to do with Lion and Sun here. This is the Phalavi-era Order of Honor (Nishan-e-Ifitkhar), est. 1937. Now maybe you understand why the Revolution took place? Yuri shows some of the Phalavi-era awards at http://www.netdialogue.com/yy/Asia/Iran/KIran/Iran.htm He also has, by the way, and extensive Lion and Sun page -- http://www.netdialogue.com/yy/Asia/Iran/Pe...Sun/LionSun.htm -- but has more nice images than insightful text (though I have to "Babel Fish" his text). You may want to glance, also, at Christopher Buyers' site: http://www.4dw.net/royalark/Persia/Orders/persia-orders.htm -- he has some of the better information around on the Nishan-i-Shir u Khurshid (Lion & Sun) at http://www.4dw.net/royalark/Persia/Orders/lionsun.htm Until we get someone with good Farsi to look at the original sources we'll be in trouble and there'll be confusion. Still seeking Dr. K's piece, by the way. Moving boxes and stacke of papers around. What my wife calls "cleaning my office".

Nice to see the documents. Those of us who don't read Russian await knowledge and enligtenment.