JBFloyd

Sachsen-Altenburg 50th Anniversary Reign Jubilee Medal 1903 (OEK 2580).

Probably earned on a "secret mission" -- so secret even he didn't know about it.

What are their names?

James, As you probably know, the award was in the London gazette, 14 November 1947, page 5351, with this heading: The KING has been pleased to grant unrestricted permission for the wearing of the following decorations which have been conferred on the undermentioned personnel in recognition of distinguished services in the cause of the Allies. That and the citation are about all you'll find on the award (in fact, finding the citation is usually fairly difficult). The certificate may or may not have ever existed. But, a replacement certificate can certainly be requested. This link will get you to the Army's contact points for such matters: https://www.hrc.army.mil/site/active/TAGD/a...ts/contacts.htm

If anyone is panic selling, I'm ready to panic buy!

Costume jewelry, unfortunately. Several companies in the 1950s and '60s made award style jewelry, often mixing and matching parts to come up with something "new". You'll see DIs included in many of the designs, but often with odd colors.

Ed, The majority of the pre-Castro Cuban awards come through coin dealers in Cuba. They seem to funnel things through Germany and Miami. In the past 10 years, I've seen more Republic-era medals than in the previous 30 years.

If you nothing, nothing will happen. Write your representative and senators! A single input from a constituent does carry weight.

Thanks to all on this effort.

The design is similar to Hungarian badges.

Many of the Cuban Republic's orders were made by Villardebo y Riera, a Havana firm that made insignia of the highest quality (as shown in the photos). They also made some order insignia for other Latin American countries.

Can anyone identify a "Maj General MacQuiggins, 8th Army"? The context is an awarded American Silver Star, probably awarded early in the US participation in North Africa. Noboby by this name appears in any of my sources on British Army officers, so the thought is that he was Australian or a New Zealander. The assumption is that it's the British Eighth Army, not the US 8th Army. Any help would be appreciated.

Not so much an answer as a musing, but when I was stationed in Germany 20+ years ago, the only EK document collector I knew was another American. He had a magnificent pile of documents, some keyed by location, some by graphic interest. The location part of the collection held one of the "dog license" types, but was issued in Tientsin. It blew right past the dealer who sold it because it looked so plain and he never bothered to read it. Not a bad purchase for about 30DM, as I recall. I found them interesting and bought a few, but usually just to fill other collectors' needs (like the one with a citation for Western Front and Romanian service). The EK documents are probably the most varied award documents in the world and that should tickle someone's fancy, but they just seem to be overlooked. Even Hamelman's book on the subject never generated much additional interest. It's a pity because there's great history there.

Then-Wing Commander William Arthur Thompson received the OBE (military) in the 1944 New Years' Honours List. His service number was 13014, which will bring up his promotions in the LOndon gazette, but I don't find any entry for a foreign award (but the on-line London Gazette is notoriously cranky).

For Pol Pot and the gang, these were "Shoot Me First" signs.

Ribbons are sometimes available through French collectors, usually at substantial prices.

It's likely to be the Czech Merit Medal (if there are narrow blue edges to the ribbon).

The Reign Medals come in three grades (bronze, silver, gold) and with varying inscriptions. Scarce, at best, in the silver and gold grades.

Faithful Service Order, given to civil servants for faithful and honest service. Comes in the classes: commander, officer and knight (which use the same pendant with different ribbon arrangements).

Civil Wound Medal. Relatively uncommon, but apparently manufactured in same bewildering array of design variations as the military version.

John Sylvester published two monographs on Laotian medals: Sylvester, John. Orders and Medals of Cambodia and Laos. NP, 1986 Sylvester, John. Orders and Medals of the Communist Governments of Indochina. NP, 1986 Both were self-published and I doubt even John has extra copies. They weren't real strongly bound, so they fall apart easily with use. As a result many may not survive at all.

Title 18, Section 704, descended from legislation that went on the books around 1923. It too was intended to stop imposters -- right up to the moment that an FBI agent decided to enforce the letter of the law against collectors. The original intent didn't help Bob Nemser or Paul Peters, both of whom got to pay their lawyers around $20k to have the FBI drop the charges. Since nobody has been willing to take these cases to court, we'll never know if the law would hold up in court. The new law is intended to get the imposters -- right up until someone decides to enforce the letter of the law. The logical absurdities are abundant, but that doesn't pay the lawyer. The matter is not over. Even if the bill gets signed, there will be a period when the CFR is being revised. From the first day of the next session, there will also be a concerted effort to find a sponsor to introduce an amendment to address the difficulties we face. We lived with the old legislation, we'll live with the new law. But, we will also continue the pressure to amend it so that everyone is happy.

David, The Mulder/Purves book is broken down by country of origin. The entries are classically bilbliographic: full authors' names, full title and subtitle; location of publication, date, page count, plate count (color and monochrome), and size. Some will also have numbers of copies printed and some will have minimal notes (e.g., "Lists recipients" or "Many engravings") I find that value lies in the identification of the books out there (I use one copy as an inventory of my own library and another copy as a reference book).

Spink, and all the other London houses, indeed have deservedly been losing ground to DNW. Spink is happy to tell you that they've been in business since the Great Fire, but also think that's the reason you should sell your meals through them. DNW, on the other hand, is far more aggressive in going out and getting consignments. Their web site is a substantial resource that gives everyone access to critical info. Their catalogs are far better researched and presented. They are certainly more attuned to the US/Canadian market than any of the others. And, they sale the goods. You may be faced with consigning at no reserve on your lots, but the unsold list st DNW is extremely small. So, maybe someone at Spink has figured out that the web has potential and may be here to stay.

The auction houses I know of who have tied up with EbayLive have consistently said it was an administrative nightmare to deal with. The system threw off their entire flow and in-house procedures and didn't bring in much more in the way of sales. The great value is the additional customer names and addresses. But, in a competitive field, you do what you have to get the market.