Ed_Haynes

I love the way the animals all have a big smile on their faces, to show how happy they are living in Mongolia

Rather like the first variety herders' badge . . . ??

Well, to choose between socialism and feudalism, . . .

Well, I think we should at least have its dimensions before we can make some more wild guesses as to what it might be.

Agreed.

This is what the wall plaques for ministeries etc... look like

Do we know what the earlier ones look like? That is the coat of arms shown here, after all, not the much later version shown in your posting.

Sure, this coiuld easily be a "nothing", but you never know.

Even sadder is the elderly gentleman (and I have seen this more than once), just in off the long train ride from the villages, who arrives in New Delhi, goes to one of the familiar dealers with his treasure lovingly wrapped in a handkerchief. It is his ancestor's treasured Victoria Cross that he does not want to sell, but must to raise funds. As he tearfully unwraps the family's pride, we learn that the Victoria Cross was a four-pointed star with a crown, crossed swords, and a wreath. Who wants to be the one to tell him that his 1914-15 Star will not solve the family's financial crisis?

Rupees, of course. And, yes, there could have been a confusion, as the number he gave would normally have been expressed as Rs. 20,00,000 (twenty lakhs), so possibly confused (from Hoshiarpur, after all) by goofy gora comma use. Yet Rs. 2,000 would have been too much (they used to be stable, commodity-like, at Rs. 500, now have moved into the Rs. 1,000 range, alas).

I am thinking "wall plaque" as in a government office.

There is H04, but this seems not at all to be THAT.

In case you woudered about the levels of insanity that exist on eBay, see:

http://cgi.ebay.in/SILVER-MEDAL-FROM-GEORG...1QQcmdZViewItem

At current rates, this is something like US$44,000.

But, for some reason, it got no bids?????

Interesting that such an auspicious occassion warranted this simple little badge....

Yes, Rick, I have always wondered this too. Why were (appreantly) lesser occasions commemorated by medals, but this only by a pretty "low-end" (ugly) badge. Maybe, someday, someone will choose to and be able to look at the records? Isn't that a more interesting question, that tells us more about how the system worked, than who was awarded Red Star # 666,666?

Hi Ed, I leave the finer translation points to you and the Good Doctor... perhaps some language lessons this summer?!!

That is near the top of my "to do" list: consulting with Dr. B on accurate English names (for example, I am convinced it is the "Order of the Vajra", and it is just that he assumed, maybe rightly, that no English speakers had or were willing to use an English-language dictionary so it got a dumb translated name as the "Precious Rod"). While we need, when possible, to use correct names, we must start with what the awards are called in THEIR language rather than inventing English names that we wish had been used instead. There is also some value in consistency. I suspect we'll never get rid of the "Order of the Polar Star" naming even though the real name -- Algan gadas Odon -- is the Golden Stake Order. I suspect that if I spoke of the "Golden Stake Order", no non-Mongolian speaker would know what I was talking about. Unless, of course, I bothered to put it into print, and offer a revision of the previously accepted nomenclature. But, then, that might just be seen a sbeing too much work.

I have actually started working, as best I can, on Mongolian. But why do I start it just as they are dropping the old foreign script and going back to one that works well for the language?

Who the heck were the Mongolians fighting in 1964?? Or is this more along the lines of the Soviet Military Merit Medal?

And there were ongoing border clashes with the Chinese anyway . . .

OK, OK . . .

. . . have it your way . . .

. . . henceforth it'll be the Baildaani gav'yaany odon (since the forum won't take Mongolian).

Are you happy now, Rick?? And what is an accurate ("accurate") translation of the Mongolian????

1- Deputy of the State Great Assembly, 1970-90 (B 03), screwback, # 241 (numbered under screwpost)

2- Deputy of the State Great Assembly, 1990-92 (B 04), screwback, # 0540 (numbered at lower right corner of reverse)

Let me know if you want reverse scans.

And the interesting part. Order of Combat Valor, #1552, 29 September 1964.

The document, part one, no photo (how used are we to THAT?!?).

The badge, type 1.2 (A 29), # 1552.

A documented Order of Combat Valor set where all actually seems to be correct and in order!

Document part 2. I am told the name is Dorzh Bathuyag, 26 June 1981, for excellent work in collective farms. Note maunscript signatures of Tsedenbal and Gotov!

Document, part 1. The real thing looks much better that this!

The badge, type 2.1, # 607 - enamel chipped.

Just in, a documented Title of Merit (A8) set.

may I ask a simple question as I do not know much about the Zanzibar order system... does the class of this Zanzibar order on this bar go together with the 4th class RAO???

I'm not quite sure what you are asking here, Heiko.

The sultan awarded those classes he felt were deserved for services rendered to him. While there were limits of numbers in each class for Zanzibaris, they played fast and loose with awards to exotic foreigners (most of them British).

The Order of the Brilliant Star of Zanzibar (Wisam al-Kawkab al-Durri al-Zanzibari) had founded by Sultan Sayyid Majid bin Said in 1865, was modified and extended by Sultan Sayyid Barghash bin Said in 1875, and was modified again by Sultan Sayyid Khalifa II bin Harub in 1918. The order came in five classes (First Class, 40 members; Second Class, 60 members; Third Class, 80 members; Fourth Class, 90 members; Fifth Class, 100 members) and became obsolete in 1964.

This is a fifth class award, from the reign of Sultan Sayyid Hamid ibn Thuwayni (March 1893-August 1896).

See Christopher Buyers' http://www.4dw.net/royalark/Tanzania/zanzibar.htm as a good starting point.

Hope to get up to Patiala this summer and get some more photos.

But Lieutenant-General H.H. Farzand-i-Khas-i-Daulat-i-Inglishia, Mansur-i-Zaman, Amir ul-Umara, Maharajadhiraja Raj Rajeshwar Yadu Vansha Vatans Bhatti Kul Bushan 108 Sri Maharaja-i-Rajgan, Maharaja Sir Bhupinder Singh Mahendra Bahadur, Maharaja of Patiala, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, GBE, didn't just collect medals on his walls. (And he did find time to collect women too.)

Located neither in Belgium or France, nor even in Europe, there is the most impressive collection I have ever seen, the Sheesh Mahal Museum collection in Patiala, Punjab, India.

For those who have not been there, the medal collection in Patiala is a definite site for pilgrimage. This is especially so now that the collection is more easily accessible to the public. In what must be one of the largest privately-assembled medal collections in the world, rivaling only the Royal Collection in the UK (but is that "private"?), the collection of Late H.H. Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala should be high on anyone's "life list" of phaleristic destinations.

To date, there is no catalogue, only a somewhat troubled coffee-table book.

A poor quality image is intended to spark interest. Part of one room (out of nine!).

Somebody have photo of General Pershing with awards ?

I have seen one somewhere. Let me look.

Pershing's medals are at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. I once had a chance to play with them, decades ago. They are not on display at present, as there is no preceived interest. When the Museum of National History is refurbished (a process starting soon), there is some distant hope that some of their medals may go on display (again). They also have the McKay Collection (think: Ney's Order of the Three Fleece).

My father met Pershing when he (my father) was 10 years old. He was impressed, but did not care one bit about his medals (10-year olds!!).

Or . . .