Ed_Haynes

What is inside . . .

A few images from the Rosenborg Slot collection. (From my summer travels.)

Why the stuff there is safe . . .

A moderator should really split much of this off into another topic thread, for, however interesting it may be, it has nothing to do with the Leopold II Order.

Ed, isn?t that an L 08 ?

Possibly, if there is, indeed, any real difference between the two. This is another of those distinctions regarding which I remain skeptical and unconvinced.

Very nice and very complete ribbon bar there, Bob. Thanks for showing it.

No means of attachment??

Rare and lovely medal, rarer and more lovely ribbon!

OMG!! I thought that his MOH was the last ribbon of the second row(with the stars). What is that ribbon then. It would have been too early for the Philippean ribbons.

2nd row: Army DSM, Navy DSM, Marine Corps Brevet Medal.

Yes, the MoH is the entire top row!

And:

Hello Laurence,

Very good questions! I'll do the best I can. Noone was ever awarded more than two MoH. Off the top of my head, I think at least six persons were awarded two--Thomas Custer, Frank Baldwin, Daniel Daly, John McCloy, Arthur McArthur and Doublas McArthur.

When the actual medals were worn by two-time recipients, both medals would be worn at the same time. As for the designation on the ribbon bar, I can only guess that an oak leaf cluster was affixed to the single ribbon.

Hope this helps. Jack

Smedley Butler wore two MoH ribbons. But Smedley did things "his way".

Not the best image (I have a better one some place), but:

Yes, thanks for that link Ed now I just got to find the home page for it

Which one? Antonio's?

http://www.coleccionesmilitares.com/

Thank you Ed for that interesting site. I didn't know that one. I couldn't find that "Landwacht" Ribbon but I have bookmarked that site!

His site and Lukasz's

http://www.medals.lava.pl/index.htm

need to be at the top of any "ribbons" bookmark list!

For medals, Megan's site

http://www.medals.org.uk/

and the OMSA database

http://www.omsa.org/photopost/index.php

are at the head of my personal list.

Hendrik, I have a strange shapped belgium medal with a black and white ribbon. I was told that this was a "Landwacht" medal. Do you know this medal? And what would it be worth?

Have you tried Antonio's various Belgian ribbon pages?

http://www.coleccionesmilitares.com/cintas/cintaseu.htm#b

See: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=10193

It is the order of Combat Valor, I think it a little harder top get than the others.

Ah . . . scanning problems and it is scanned with the bar flipped. All is clearer now. What I expected. An uncommon bar to be sure, especially from that era. Thanks.

The bar - Two Polar Stars and a _what_? Blue or green centre??

Is this relevant or is this ungentlemanly politics?!

Thanks Ed, couldn't place the second... I had initially thought NY Conspicuous Service Cross...

No, I think (and working from memory, that is a very dangerous thing) it is the VFW. That would be a logical pair.

The Black Star of Benin was a French colonial award and had little to do with Benin (as we know it today). I was pretty freely awarded by the French in WWI to allied officers, for things that had nothing to do with the French colonial project, and that is probably what we are seeing here. The Thai award is more rare, more interesting, and more puzzling.

Hey Mate, what are these two awards?

WWI Victory Medal (with bronze star for one clasp) and Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Therein lies part of the frustration for folks Willi. They spend hours of their time trying to help someone out and it was either not necessary as the owner of the bar already knew, or the information was then used to double/triple the asking price of an item.

It has a tendency to make the research specialists hesitant to share/help people out.

True, Rick, very true! Those who have never done research cannot understand the work that is involved. And so many see research merely as a momentary increase in money in their pockets when they flog a parasitically researched group. Look around this forum, there are so many (too many) cases of what you describe. It leads inevitably to the researchers keeping silent. So sad, so sad.

Dave makes some very powerful and important points, with which I am in absolute agreement. HISTORY!!

There is also a tendancy -- and those of us in the developing world of Mongolian awards have to contend with it constantly -- toward a dynamic that wants more and more and more types and varieties and sub-varieties and sub-sub-varieties, extending down almost to the electron-microscopic uniqueness of each individual award. If there are true varieties that may divulge something about the phaleristic history and changing award processes of the award, fine and dandy. If, however, we are just identifying "noise" in the manufacturing process, minor differences in each batch as they were made up with all the errors and sloppiness of manufacture (making medals is NOT rocket science), then what of any substance are we doing? (Other than giving collectors more items they need to tick off on their checklists -- "Oh, look, a rare type 4, variety 18, sub-variety 42.8 of the ___ -- gotta have it!!")

My two hundred Tugriks or five Kopecks worth,

Ed

Copying the whole magazine (as that issue has only 1 area : the red cross medal) would probably be just as expensive as getting the magazine itself.

And there would be, of course, not insignificant copyright issues.

Ah, back to the old days. I still remember my first OMSA convention (I won't divulge when, but the CCCP was still alive and well). Several large unjolly folks from the Soviet embassy came in on the public day, went around the tables jotting down serial numbers of the few (and incredibly expensive) Soviet awards that were there for sale. I suspect the original recipients could expect a visit? I know that several dealers were de-numbering their stock then and there, with Swiss army knives, before the gentlemen made it to their tables.

Now all they'd have to do is visit several web sites . . . .

No images, probably because the site you have them on is SOOOOO slow. Why not just post the images normally?