cimbineus

Gents, The original name of this organisation was: Industrial Facilities’ Guard. It was established in 1953 and supervised by the Ministry of Interior. This was an armed semi-military organisation which was responsible for guarding and safe-keeping industrial facilities, bridges, railway structures and other means on communication. At the very beginning they had no uniform and carried out their duties in civilian with obsolete weapons. That is why they were called “rifle on string” at that time. (In Hungarian: “madzagos puska”.) From the ‘60s it was reorganised and during this process the grey-blue uniform was introduced with visor cap. This was the time when the cap badge appeared too. The cap badge has its origins from this organisations “Kiváló” badge introduced immediately after the creation of the organisation in 1953. This was the “Excellent Industrial Guard” badge, a ministerial level award. For those who received this badge an extra monthly wage was granted. Here is this early type of the badge. Later this badge went through certain modifications but it kept its original appearance during its whole existence. It existed until 1989 when this organisation was disbanded and its functions were taken over by security guard services organised on commercial basis. Regards, cimbineus

Gordon, Basically the main initiator was the MTH, as the responsible organisation for the training of skilled workmen. These badges, amongst many others, served this process recognising and rewarding prominent students. The DISZ politically supported this whole thing giving it an overall political “chapeau”. cimbineus

Gents, This is the lowest, bronze grade of a three-grade series of badges established by the MTH (Munkaerő Tartalékok Hivatala = Manpower Reserves’ Office, which was a quasi ministerial level institution) and the above mentioned DISZ for students in professional schools, at the beginning of the '50s. In fact, this bronze grade can be considered a relatively rare badge, but the silver is even more difficult to obtain, while the golden grade is practically impossible to find. It is extremely scarce, just some pieces known. cimbineus

Tim, Nothing special, I would say. Some years ago I noticed the increasing number of counterfeited Austro-Hungarian and pre-war Hungarian ribbons and started thinking about a counter-measure. It came to my mind if I could use a Ultraviolet Light Lamp for this purpose, you know, the gadget used for checking banknotes and credit cards, passports, etc, to detect fakes. I bought one and to my great satisfaction it works in most of the cases. It is a very helpful device, I have to say. Here are some more examples. The first is the Korean War Medal ribbon. On the left-hand side is a recent one, whilst on the right-hand side is the original ribbon. And here are some Hungarian Bravery Medals' ribbons, but this time the fakes are on the right-hand side. Regards, cimbineus (P.S.: But, if you want to learn more about the theory itself, please, refer to Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia....iki/Ultraviolet)

...but in fact, please, look at the righ-hand side of the order. There are clear sings of a latter repair:

And, I would like to add one more important thing. A UV lamp can assist you in detecting latter repairs on orders and medals too, when for reparation plastics were used. Here is one example. Seemingly everything is okay with this order:

. Here is one more example:

. … but, a UV lamp reveals the invisible things too:

Gents, I think, this is an important problem regarding the Austro-Hungarian ribbons. One can meet less and less original ribbons, while the fakes and copies accompanied by different stories and fairy tales flood the markets. Those are produced in big quantities in Vienna, in Budapest and who knows where else. Sometime it is very difficult to differentiate between them and tell immediately which is original and which is a latter copy. I have been using UV lamp for many years and I have to tell you, it helps. Please, have a look at the pictures below. Regards, cimbineus Here is what we can see with our eyes. Nothing special, one can say…

Dear Kevin, Many thanks for posting these pictures. Here is the rough translation of the relevant part of the text: This tiny village gave heroes to the Revolution. Here were born Janos Laszlo (1826-1893) and Zsigmond Laszlo, both lieutenants of the Honved Army in 1848. And, three members of the Eresztevenyi family took part in the Revolution. Gyorgy fell as a hero in 1849 in the battle of Nagyszebeny. Antal served as a Major, while Laszlo as a Lieutenant was defending the Szekelyfold in Transylvania. (The rest of the text is about the church, the cemetery, etc.) Regards, cimbineus

...and another view:

Here is a winter headgear (fur-cap) introduced in 1975 for General Officers. It is a relatively scarce piece.

"OKLEVÉL" = DIPLOMA

Gents, If you do not mind I start this new topic with some interesting Certificates or Diplomas, as we say in Hungarian. Regards, cimbineus

Yes, indeed, these medals are awards of Veszprem county, and their exact name is: "For Veszprem County". These medals had double function. First, they served as a county award for long service or outstanding work in the county's offices, and second, they could be awarded to inhabitants of the county for they voluntary work or donations. cimbineus

. ... And here are the three known versions of the badge:

. Gents, This is a relatively rare "excellent worker"-type badge, the "Master of Folk Art". This badge was established in 1953 by Government Decree No. 1040/1953. (VIII.18.) and abolished by Parliamentary Act No. XXXI. in 1991. I think, it is interesting to know, that those who received this badge of excellence also were given a certain amount of money and after their retirement they were entitled to receive a certain addition to their pension. Regards, cimbineus

. Gordon, Here is another picture of the same Star, but now it is in its case: Regards, cimbineus

. Gent, Here are the four honoured personalities: - Bertalan Farkas, the Hungarian cosmonaut, - Valeriy Kubasov - Leonid Popov - Valeriy Ryumin, all three were Soviet cosmonauts. The first two can be seen in Peter's picture above. Regards, cimbineus