heusy68

COMMENDATION FOR VALUABLE SERVICE MEDAL

DISTINGUISHED CORRECTIONAL SERVICE MEDAL

CROSS OF MEDICAL SERVICE MEDAL

As I wrote before the Order of Cultural Merit of Tunisia & all the others specific merit Orders of Tunisia have now been replaced by the Order of Merit.Award document have been seen which make this 100 % sure and the date for the change is 1997 (this is 90 % sure). Here is a 5th class of the new Order of Merit of Tunisia.It's metal gilt (not gold) and funny enough to be mentioned the case of issue is of yellow leather by Arthus Bertrand. Those who know ex french colonies Orders know that the case for them are either green,red,bordeaux red,but yellow is the first time. Emmanuel

In 1982 Omar Khlifi was already awarded Commander of the Order of Cultural Merit. So here you have the occasion to compare a document issued in 1982 from the time of President Bourghiba to the above post which is a document issued in the early President Ben Ali era. Note below left side of this diploma the number "168",so from 1966 till 1982 only 168 Order of Cultural Merit awarded.But of course I cannot certify if this figure number is related only to the commander rank or to all ranks. Emmanuel

Omar Khlifi who is a tunisian author (Moncef Bey King & Martyr and History of Cinema in Tunisia) & film realisator from 1966 till 1984.Later he was Counsellor to the Ministry of Culture. In 1991 president Ben Ali awarded him Grand Officer of the Order of Cultural Merit. You can see his award document here. Emmanuel

Here you can see the Commander & Officer insigna. The size is similar.The specimen displayed in the drawers of the Museum of Legion of Honour of Paris has been mounted by a wrong ribbon (the ribbon of the Labour Medal of Tunisia). Emmanuel

Hello Gentlemen, Maybe too many article concerning Irak in this forum,so I have decided to post a less known award from Tunisia : Order of Cultural Merit. The Order of Cultural Merit was created by President Bourghiba by Law N° 66-61 of 5 July 1966 in 3 classes and was modified by the Law N°69-23 of 27 march 1969 in a 5 classes Order. As of today only specimen of 5th to 2nd Class have been seen. The insigna of the Order is a golden circular medal with a feather on each border and guitar on center.The ribbon is orange bordered in green.The case of issue are of dark green leather with no inscription on the lid,but with the mark of Arthus Bertrand Paris inside. The second class of Grand Officer is a breast star & a neck badge.The breast star is pentagonal and is 80 millimeters of diameter.Those who know african Order will immediately remark that the body of the breast star is the same of the one used for the senior Order of Cameroon (the Order of Valour).The manufacturer Arthus Bertrand had in the past used tools made for one country to be re-employed for others country to spare cost. The neck badge is small : 32 x 43 millimeters and this size is used for 5th till 2nd grades. Since the end of the 90ies all specific Merit Orders of Tunisia (Culture-Agriculture-Sport-Teacher)have been replaced by the newly instituted Order of Merit which is now awarded for different titel.I mean that now the Order of Merit is awarded by the Ministry of Culture for the field related to culture,the Order of Merit is awarded by the Ministry of Agriculture for filed related to agriculture.... The Order of Culture is now an obsolete Order,but wearing of insigna is of course still permitted and there is no exchange policy for insigna of the new Order of Merit. Emmanuel

Hello Gentlemen, I will be soon for a short trip in Beijing and I would like to know if there is an area or some anitique shop with Medals & Orders,not necessary from China in Beijing ? Please no junk shop area,I know how and how many fakes are now on market. Thanks. Emmanuel

Hello Gentlmen, Does anyone has adress for shop who might have Medals & Orders in Beijing. Thanks. Emmanuel

Hello Gentlemen,the Kagera Battle was the spot of the war between Uganda & Tanzania in 1978-79. Both countries have issued medals for this battle. At left you can see the one of Uganda (but issued long time after Idi Amin had left the country).This medal is (was) widely available in London some years ago.The one at right is the much more seldom one issued by Tanzania (I got it in Dar es Salam junk shop long time ago for 5 US $). Tanzania had also issued the Vita Medal for the soldiers who took action in this war (but not necesserely the Kagera Battle). This medal has been posted by Eitze and you can see it above. Both medals are uniface,the medal of Uganda made by Spink,the other one ? The diameter of the Tanzania medal is 35 millimeters & for Uganda 36 millimeters. Emmanuel

Hello Gentlemen I did some translation with an on line translator from Swahili to English (not always easy,as a word in Swahili may have different meaning depending of context).Here are the words you can found on different medals from Tanzania. Keep in mind that Tanzania has for at least 3 of its awards the same badge used for the 3 Services (Army - Police - Prison ) but with a different ribbon. These are : Exemplary Service Medal - Long Service Medal & Unification Medal. For all these 3 medals the main colour of ribbon is bright red for the Army,dark bleu for the Police & green for the Prison. Nishani : Award - Medal Ya : of Na : and Jamhuri : Republic Ujasiri : Bravery Utumishi : Service Mrefu : Long Tabia : Conduct Njema : Good Uzalishaji : Production Bora : Excellent Ushupavu : Tenacity Endurance Persevernce Resolution (a lot of meaning for this word). Muungano :Union If someone who has Swahili has his mother language could confirm or correct it would be great. Emmanuel

To be as complete as possible I have take the liberty to post this Counsellor badge (the lowest grade). This picture has already been post by Ilija on this site some weeks ago. Emmanuel

The miniature of Grand Counsellor. Emmanuel

The sash badge of Grand Counsellor. If anyone has one of these for sale,I would be more than happy to purchase it. Emmanuel

Here the Grand Counsellor breast star.The Royal Order of Sobhuza II has 3 grades (Grand Counsellor which is an enameled sash badge & a breast star - Chief Counsellor which is a smaller enameled neck badge - Counsellor which is a smaller unenameled breast badge). The motto reads : YIHHULU ZASHINGA which is the war cry of the Royal Regiment. Emmanuel

Hello Gentlemen, There might be some collectors who had ever wanted to know what the Royal Order of Sobhuza II look alike (included me). Today I got an old production catalogue from the company who manufactured them (Skinner). Nowday the new Orders instituted by King Mswati III are manufactured by Cleave & Co and it seems the Order of Sobhuza II is not awarded anymore. I hope you'll enjoy these rare pictures. Emmanuel

Hello Andre, Yes they are of different shape,sometimes the design of some new country is handsome,sometimes it's catastrophic like it is nowday the case with Trinidad & Tobago and their senior award the Trinity Cross which was a hanhdsome award,and now there has been a change in Trinidad & Tobago because some people had argueing that an award cross shaped is an "offense" to non christian.Now in Trinidad the new Trinity Cross is so ugly...I will try to do a post later on that just to show. But here I come back to Tanzania,you know it's a rare Order ,the Torch of Kilimandjaro,even King baudouin from Belgium who made a long State Visit to Tanzania in the late 60ies or early 70ies wasn't awarded an Order by Tanzania ( you can try to have acess on ars.moriendi ,look on google surch engine and on ars.moriendi there is the list of obituary of King of Belgium + a lot of belgian politician from 1830 to nowdays). Also Queen Elisabeth II which list of awards is available easily on the net was NOT awarded an Order of Tanzania. It would be interesting to know if some senior official of ex German Democratic Republic were awarded some Tanzanian awards as Tanzania was looking to the socialist way for its economy in the 60ies & 70ies.,also because Tanzania was a german colony before 1918. Emmanuel

Hello Mr Prieto, Before coming so fast and put the text list of decree of creation on page,you should know that Djibouti is Africa,and that in Africa many text/regulation are not applicated or just they are applicated in another way. Baqueville of Paris who manufactured these Order of National Education of Djibouti has mounted them (Knight & Officers) with this bicolour green/bleu ribbon and yes Commander where mounted on a neck ribbon matching the colours of the flag of Djibouti. And if you want to know all,they were sent to Djibouti in october 2002. Before to try to give lessons to a person (Megan) who do her best to display pictures that collectors send to her,you should think about to correct many many error concerning a lot of exotic countries that are on your own web site ! Most of these error certainly coming from text of law that might have been interpreted in an incorrect way concerning the shades of colours of ribbon AND also from the many people who have listed medals on a well know internet auction site with incorrect or fantasy ribbon AND also from dealers that prefer to sell medals with ribbon they know as incorrect just because it's easier to sell a medal with a ribbon raher than a medal without ribbon!! But do not be angry,you do a very good job,just that I consider inapropriate to try to point a mistake when on another hands there is so many from your side too. I would never try to give lessons concerning spanish ribbon,but believe me concerning exotic countries my data base is very wide and I consider there is a challenge on knowing and trying to know medals on which information is very weak. Emmanuel

Hello Sir, What do you mean by very basic ? Tanzania is a country that had wanted to cut ties with UK and all what could remain too much european.So it's not strange they have chosen a new type of shape. By the way the manufacturing quality of their Order is exceptionnal (nothing to match with the quality of most of the medal of Tanzania),and the quality is much better than most of the european Order. Just to give an idea the 1st Class sash badge is 165 grammes. Emmanuel

The suite of the text.

First page of text related to the 1933 Queen Wilhelmina 35 Years of Reign Guard Commemorative.

Hello Bob, Yes for sure Paleis Het Loo is a wonderfull Orders & Medals Museum and the Palace with its park is beautifull too. Do not forget that the Palace itself is open at 11.00 AM with visit of the private appartement of King Wilhelm III,but the Orders & Medals Museum is open only at 2.00 PM !!!! For people who like exotic Orders like me,it's a pleasure,lots of items from Pakistan,Surinam,Indonesia,Nepal,Rwanda....and also a lot a lot of classical Orders also from the Napoleonic time. The bad point is that they have only a small booklet with some photo of their collection and this booklet is only in dutch (I mean not even in english). But a visit to Belgian Army Museum is worth also ( www.klm-mra.be ) and you can have acess to a lot of pictures. Also the recently re-open the Musée d'Armes in the city of Liège where there is a very nice collection of Orders. Also not that far is the Musée de la Légion d'Honneur in Paris who is a jewel since it re-opening in december 2006 (the avalable displaying surface has been multiplied by 5 by the use of drawers) with now pieces from the Spada Collection on exhibition. Emmanuel

I made a mistake in measuring the size,it's 60 x 60 millimeters (not 40).And it correspond to the dimension given by the book of Kleitman. When I took the size ,it was between 10 & 4 on my "slide rule",I was tired,so I wrote 40 for 4 centimeters,but of course it's 60 millimeters. I saw an amazing romanian collection in a shop in Lausanne,and mine is similar to the one I showed to you.Do you have one to show to compare ? Emmanuel