Ed_Haynes

Another-

To leap forward: identify this one??

Another-

Probably old stuff for many of you, but I'll post a few (and more if you can take it) images from museum visits during my recent visit to Moscow. I was a bit disappoined by the medals in the Museum of the Great Patriotic War and the Central Museum of Contemporary History (though other exhibits at both places were GREAT). Almost all tyhe medals at those two museums were fakes ('replicas'). Those at the Museum of the Border Forces (ex-KGB) were great, though no photos were allowed (I did, however, get invited to in in on the post-luncheon entertainment for the KGB border veterans who were in town for the parade commomorating the 65th anniversary of the start of the GPW). Although half of it was closed for repairs, the Central Museum of the Armed Forces was literally jaw-dropping and they let me take photos, though this was sometimes not easy to do. Best I of, I saw few fakes.

Nice additions, thanks. I had put up a cased Bulgarian pair (?) over at http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=3778

Anyone care to guess?? Shall try to oblige. Have an old scan, from the time I first catalogued them, somewhere. But a new scan will be much prettier.

Last for now, closeups are possible on request.

Some odd and exotic things.

As if that wasn't enough, . . . .

You'd asked for IGS medals?

Some gallantry things. The IOM 1 (all Mutiny era) has been removed for close-up photos.

Some things that, unfortunately, all look the same

Another general view.

Africa General Service

Some more views of their collection. Probably their rarest single item?

Good news indeed! See: http://www.historicalresearch.com/books.html

Romanian. See: http://www.medals.lava.pl/ro/ro1.htm Order of the Crown Order of the Crown Medal for Bravery and Loyalty Commemorative Cross for War of 1916-19 WWI Victory Medal Crusade against Communism Medal of Faithful Service

An interesting group, with some inventive mounting, one that raises more questions than it answers: 1- The naming on the Egypt Medal: Is this exactly as it reads? This would seem to be a medal to an Egyptian then, rather than to a Britisn (or imperial) subject. Yet most of these were named in Arabic, not English. 2- The Khedival Star: Which variety? 3- The ribbons are, at best, eccentric on these last two and the order is odd. It would suggest an award to an Egyptian who wore his medals in the proper order (for him), but with the wrong ribbon on the Khedive's award?! But then why mount the German stuff at the beginning?! Does the mounting seem "period"? My first impression would be some sort of Egyptian courtier, ex-military, but the order and the absence of anything else Egyptian seems odd. Very curious.

As there are, in most cases, no "official" miniatures, this is not at issue. These seem to be an interesting portion of a novelty collector's set of numismatic medallions (not "medals" in the we we phalerists use the word) representing the reverses of a number of British campaign medals. You can imagine these things done up in a fitted case for sale to collectors of table medals. The obverses are of course incorrect and the time span of even just these few suggests it isn't something involved in the manufacturing process (things like the MGS and 2nd Punjab medals predated the common wearing of miniatures in any case) = not samples of the proper reverse designs made available to the manufacturers (unless they were manufacturers targeted soley on the collector's market only, and there may be indelicate words for this activity). In any case, an interesting fringe novelty item.

More on "vajra" from a manuscript I am doing final illustration reconcilliation on just now: And . . . Teach yourself Mongolian. For all the good that is likely to do?! And just as I start working on it in Cyrillic, the language is being switched back to the pre-1940 script!

The multi-clasp medals are specimens with all (ALL) clasps, regardless of who could have qualified for them. Just await later pictures!

Short answer: Yes.

Actually, I am in New Delhi. Have not spotted it here. Another week and a few days before Moscow and Ulanbaatar. Ed

And a final one, for now. Will post more if no one complains.

Another . . .