JapanX

Close examination of this list of recipients …

Official report about bestowal was published in Supplement to the London Gazette, 17 February, 1920, pp. 1935-1937. see http://www.london-ga...upplements/1935 Inside this long list we can find the name of our hero (p. 1937, right column, 6 from the top) see http://www.london-ga...upplements/1937

As we know China declared war on Germany on the May 14th, 1917, shortly after the USA entered the war, but did not take any significant part in the war (for obvious reasons). However, a large number of Chinese served with the so-called Chinese Labour Corps and Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). Basically they were recruited by the British government and sent to France to support troops by carrying out manual labour tasks. As a result some of these British officers from these two Corps, received the Order of the Striped Tiger. Alexander Potter Storrie was one of these officers.

This 5th class tiger (ribbon is incorrect later replacement) was awarded to Temporary Captain Alexander Potter Storrie on February 17, 1920 for his service in Labour Corps during WW I. Rest of the group

The box

Hmmm… No comments … Looks like this topic is not so hot Gavin Anyway, how we can test if digital mark is indeed a simple date marker? I think the answer is quite obvious – we find the group with known date of issue and check if this date coincides with reverse digital mark interpretation (i.e. its interpretations as date mark). Here comes the first such group with the order of Striped Tiger. The tiger (we saw this specimen with S2/D2 marks earlier)

Of course the big question is the real purpose of these three so-called "unofficial" or "personal" medals. And this question remains unanswered... Cheers, Nick

And the ribbon of this medal has the same pattern as notorious “unofficial” National Foundation Merit Medal (“red/blue/white/black/yellow” when official National Foundation Medal has another color order of stripes “blue/red/yellow/white/black”)

By the way, interior of the box is exactly the same as interior of “unofficial” First Anniversary of Manchukuo Medal (a.k.a. Medal with the Flag)

And even balsa box bears the same inscription as lacquered “official” medal box

On reverse we observe exactly the same inscription as on “official” National Foundation medal Great Manchukuo / National Foundation Merit Medal / Ta Tung 1

Obverse bears same inscription as obverse of the “official” National Foundation medal (only script is slightly different): National Foundation

Box

And now something new. My guess it was some kind “unofficial” version of this medal. Medal

Box

We are all familiar with Manchukuo National Foundation medal. Nice, but nothing special... It was established in 1933 to commemorate "the birth of a new nation” that happened in 1932. Medal

Cental medallion close up

And another one. Same old story: base components are the same - different colouring.

Old and beautiful !!! Nice! ;)

And another thought. If these digital marks are indeed time indicators, then why we don't obverse them separately (i.e. without S marks)? This is really strange ...

So they made first Tigers inside 8-month period? Well, maybe... Letter and number changed places in case of D3. This is very strange ... And I have serious doubts that number in D2 mark is actually 7 You see - the most frequent mark of them all is simply S1 From my experience combination S1/D1 dominates others. Second place holds S2/D2 combination. You get that right And what about Tigers without digital mark (or without any marks at all!)? Why they don't have it? Cheers, Nick P.S. Alternatively digital marks could be a) personal marks of masters b) quality control marks

One question is still opened – the question about the real meaning of these marks … If “seal marks” are really workshops “signatures”, then what is the meaning of these “digital” marks? Are these dates? Well, sometimes they interpret D1 and D2 marks as “July 1923”. The reasons for this interpretation are obvious. But what about D4 mark? How we could translate it into date? Another hypotheses state that “digital” marks are actually silver hallmarks… Hmmmmm … I don’t know about that… And what do you think? Regards, Nick

Reverse

And then of course there are unmarked Tigers. Very interesting specimen. 6th class. Obverse

A gallery of "digital" marks