Vatjan

I believe the deafening silence is mostly due to the fact that there already is an enormous amount of information on there. No use in posting an 732th Polar star or a 1234th herders' badge, (lovely as they may be) unless there is some interesting information to go with them. Research would surely liven up a bit the sub forum. Although I'm afraid that, seeing most orders given after 1945 are long service awards, they will not provide very riveting citations. Jan

Hi Guys, I have this Grand Orient de France Jewel in the for sale section. Have a look at it !! Link: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=18564 Best regards Jan

Thanks for those Igor, very informative. Best regards Jan

For the medal? Definitely!!! A bargain even. Jan

Dag Roel, I own 2 of those medals for which I downloaded the MIC's. They were equally bare as the one Tony mentions. Still, it would be worth the while to get the MIC, because I have heard, from a very reliable source, that some of these people also got some orders, so you never know. Keep us informed Jan

WOOOOOOOOWWWWW That is one nice piece, Ed. With solid provenance to boot. Makes one dream of prototypes of the other orders as well. Now for the differences, let me see, hmmm - no fold on the front of the hat - a more well-fed SB - thicker rounded enamel on the rays - texture on the rays of the gold star - slightly different letters in SB name That's a good start I would think Jan

I would go with the prototype hypothesis or it may be our worst fear come true a remarkably good fake. Hey Ed, is this a quizzz thingy where he who gets the right answer, wins the order in question "The plot thickens dear Watson " Jan

He lost some weight in B it would seem, and there is something about the hat, is that a scanning effect? Aargh, the suspense is killing me Jan

Hmm, the texture of the gold star in A seems to be a bit grainy where as b seems smooth. The letters in Sukhbaa... seem different And the enamel of A seems to be thicker with a more rounded surface Intriguing Jan

Wow Ed, great picture, this is the first time that I see a Herder's badge being worn. Curious about the doc too Jan

WoW, that'a a real beauty and and new lowest SN too, now where is that green with envy smiley? Jan

Well Ed, you get 6 medal for that price!!! Jan

Oh no, this breaks my heart

Yes, correct, OPS silver pinback. 147 is the number of the decree by which the order was awarded. Nice doc, good luck finding the order itself Cheers Jan

This is a real tinsel star, Grand Officer, from the collection of the Belgian National Library Jan

Indeed There have been reports from strange goings-on in the Irish Pub in the advanced hours of the evening, ohohoh

See page 1

I remember being dubious about the handwriting of the serial number on the doc. Upon close inspection, now that you have it in your hands Ed, what do you think?

Haven't we seen this one before?

Poor thing, thank god it found a loving home to spend its retirement days =o) Nice one Ed

SB's were awarded from 1945 onwards, only OPS's dating from before 1941 were mintmarked, as were all the other orders from that period. So at least in this case Polar Stars are no exception to the rule Jan

Interesting text from the UB Post Apparantly the pix won't load, so I attached Denzen's pic separately Memories_of_war_veteran_D_Denzen.htm

I think it's probably just a different production run from another factory. Anyway to confuse things even more here are 269 flatback and 206 mirror reverse (neither of them mine unfortunately) Jan

Here's one I really liked, but then hesitated too long and missed it Jan

I cannot believe what I'm seeing no wonder you're shaking, just seeing these pix has me shaking also. WOW These will be great additions to your collection Ed, congratulations.