cimbineus

Hello Lilo,

You are welcome! And my answer is: definitely, yes! The swords came also in 1939. So, if he received the award in 1929, as you said earlier, your perception is 100% correct!

Kind regards,

cimbineus

Gents,

Perhaps, it is a bit late, but, nevertheless, I deem it necessary to dispel some misunderstandings with regard to the questions posed. My first remark is that the three questions are extremely intelligent and appropriate.

1.) Your understanding is totally correct, lilo. The turning date was 23 December 1935. Before that date there was "CROSS", after that date it became "ORDER". The Crosses and Orders differ from each other in the number of degrees, their names, sizes and shapes too.

2.) In 1929 there was only green ribbon for the Merit Crosses both for military and civilian persons. Foreigners could also receive those awards only on green ribbons. The war ribbon was introduced on 14 April 1939 only.

3.) Yes, that is the correct ribbon, the green one, but there should be a miniature of the Cross on it. For the Grand Crosses and Crosses I. Class 25 mm in diameter, for the Crosses II. Class: 18 mm, III. Class: 15 mm, IV. Class: 12 mm and the V. Class with no miniature, just the plain green ribbon.

Regards,

cimbineus

Gents,

The only problem with these medals is the missing two airplanes from the last two ones, I think.

In Hungarian "~ÉRT" means "FOR" and "~BAN" means "IN". If you take the medals for flight hours, although the "~ÉRT" version is the correct one, from linguistic point of view the "~BAN" ending has the same meaning, so, the mixing up of the two basic pieces during the production caused no principal problem. Consequently, the miss-glued medals were used as normal ones.

But on the other hand, in the case of the long service medals the "~ÉRT" ending would have a funny connotation. The inscription "20 YEARS FOR SERVING IN THE …" would hint at 20 years imprisonment for serving in the Armed Forces. My guess is that these kind of miss-glued pieces apparently were withdrawn by quality controllers.

I have not met this second miss-glued version yet, but many times have met the flight hour medal with "~BAN" ending as shown above, obviously miss-glued during production.

Regards,

cimbineus

.

wow!!!!

Excellent information.

Were there any other unofficial/quasi-official Hungarian medals made in 1945-46 ?

As I mentioned above, there were two medals of this kind, both issued by Budapest in 1945, this one, the bridge-restoration medal, and another one, the transportation medal. The other one is also for the Soviet troops for transporting some food to starving population of Budapest. This second one is also an RRR!!! rarity grade medal.

Were these boxes official? A production by the state mint? - If so - I passed over two of these at flea markets as I thought they were simply something a worker had made.... :banger:

Yes, these boxes were official. There were at least a dozen different types of boxes for SZTAHANOVISTA badges and these wooden ones are the rarest, I think.

cimbineus

Hello Gents,

Perhaps, I can help a bit. This is one of the two very first Hungarian medals after World War II. This is not a State award, but as you correctly mentioned, it was instituted by the Mayor of Budapest in 1945. Perhaps, because of those turbulent times, they simply forgot to file the related documents, and those got lost. There is no written documents on this subject, just the financial papers, when they ordered the medals. Just the memories of some people helped to identify and put on paper the history of this and the other medal too. The story even more complicated, since both of them were instituted specially for warding the Russian troops, so, practically none or very little of them remained in Hungary. At least 95% of them were awarded to Russian officers and soldiers. This is the explanation of the bilingual document. And, consequently, all those medals gone to the Soviet Union and disappeared in the course of time. It is quite understandable, since just some hundred medals of foreign (unknown) origin went to the huge Soviet Union, and nobody knew what they were, nothing special, nothing eye-catching, just a bronze medal with funny ribbon.

And now, let see the medal itself. All the bridges across the Danube were blown up by the retreating German troops. Just imagine a 1,7 million city with no communication between the two parts of it, Pest and Buda. So, it was essential to rebuild as quickly as possible at least some of them. The Soviets also needed the bridges because of military purposes. I remind you, this happened in March, April 1945. Everything, literally everything was in Russian hands, so only the Russians could start the job, and they did. In some months they erected a temporary bridge and restored two others at least on temporary basis. But, this was vital for the country and its capital city as well. The leadership of Budapest decided to express their appreciation to those who took part in that heroic work, and in May 1945 they bestowed this modest medal on some 5-600 hundred Russian soldiers. The Mayor of the city was Zoltán Vass. His signature is on the document, funnily also in Russian language.

The explanation of the ribbon colours is simple. Since this was not a state award (which came later, only in 1946), but the capital city's medal, obvious that the ribbon wears the colours of Budapest: red - gold (yellow) – green. I guess that the depicted ribbon later come undone and the owner repaired it mixing up the order of the colours. This gives a special touch to this excellent piece.

Sincere congratulations! You got a triple "R" medal. Yes, it is extremely scarce, practically impossible to obtain: RRR!!! If you ad that you have the related bilingual document too, well, I simply cannot find words…

Kind regards,

cimbineus

P.S.: The inscription says: "The city of Budapest for the heroic achievements of the bridge-laying units of the glorious Red Army"

Gents,

Here are some very scarce wooden cases with "SZTAHANOVISTA" and "KIVÁLÓ" badges from early 50s.

("KÖNNYŰIPAR= "LIGHT INDUSTRY")

Regards,

cimbineus

What was a "youth professional worker" again?

Hi Gents,

A little help with Hungarian, if I may.

"KIVÁLÓ IFJÚ SZAKEMBER" means "EXCELLENT YOUNG SPECIALIST"

This was a general badge and was awarded to young people, under 28 years I guess, if they performed well during first years of their work activities in almost all branches of the economy.

Regards,

cimbineus

Here´s a photo of the different "Szolgálati érdem érem" medals.

The photo is the courtesy of our fellow gentleman Cimbineus.

Gents,

The two on the left hand side are the military ones, while the two on the right are the civilian ones. The "Distinguished Service Medal", the "Service Medal", and the "For Socialist Labour" and the "Labour Medal", respectively.

Regards,

cimbineus

cimbineus,

Long time no see! I would really like to see the two badges you mentioned but they did not appear in your post. Perhaps you were unable to upload them? Please disregard this post. The badges appeared soon after I made the post.

Regards,

Gordon

Hi Gordon,

Yes, I am quite busy these moths. But the badges are there, I think.

Regards,

cimbineus

Gents,

Here is the badge in two versions and the back. Its diameter is 38 millimetres.

Regards,

cimbineus

...Two ribbons were possible ?nd awarded: Red Ribbon and War Ribbon ...

Dear All,

I kindly ask you to help me, please. I am looking for evidences that das Eiserne Verdienstkreuz really could be awarded on red ribbon. If you have any photograph or "legitimation"s from units and commands, and you could share with me those documents I would be extremely grateful. Thanks in advance and I hope to see many interesting photos and documents.

Regards,

cimbineus

... and a closer look...

Hello Gents,

Here is the contemporary Hungarian Wound Medal.

Regards,

cimbineus

This is the 1957 version: It would be easy enough to knock off the 1957 crest and drill a hole through enamel or even metal to get the same desired affect. With a high speed drill and drill bit I can cut a hole through enamel or glass if I am careful enough...

Thanks for the picture. Yes, I agree, it is quite possible to take off any Crest from the middle and drill a hole through, since the middle of the banner is not covered by glass, it is just the basic metal, a metal "disc". However, I have never met or heard about this version of '57, but like Gordon says, anything is possible in the field of phaleristics.

Regards,

cimbineus

Drill Press + Desire for Financial Gain = Faked Badge. In reality its not that hard to drill out the 1957 Crest with a drill press and some patience and not damage the badge. Its also equally easy to push out the crest on a pre 56' order or medal and replace it. What is perhaps more tragic is that the 1957 version is perhaps more rare as they were only produced for one year before being lost in Kadarization...

Hi Gents,

Let me try again, because there must be some misunderstanding here. There is no hole in the original badge's banner. The '49 Crest fixed on the surface of the banner, so, not the '49 Crest was drilled out and replaced with the '57 Crest, but the enamelled banner had a hole in the very middle which is quite impossible to make, unless it is made originally before enamelling, I think.

(To my best knowledge there was no '57 version of this badge at all. At least, I have never heard about it.)

Regards,

cimbineus