Dieter3

Not Meiji! To the other question, well, yes and no. There are variations in the medals that can give clues as to the date - EX: the style of hook and catch used and how they are attached to ribbon. By my observations, earlier red cross medals in general seem to have the hook in particular sewn to the outside surface of the ribbon's backside, vs. later pieces incorporating it into the folds of the ribbon. Older ribbons also vary in the hue of the stripes - it seems that older pieces have darker blue stripes as opposed to lighter blue or gray/light gray stripes. You never really know how accurate colors are, especially on old things, but some other items I've collected with depictions of the medals (like postcards and things) from the Meiji period show the medals with darker stripes, and later cards (like Showa era) seem to show them with lighter strips. When exactly these transitions were made is certainly unknown to me!! The only thing I can state with reasonable confidence, and Paul and Rich could probably back this up, is that in 1956 it seems there was a revamping of Red Cross rules and regulations and this was when the actual gold Special Memberships and Gold Order of merit were established. Up to that point, the Order was simply referred to as a Meritorious Award or a Special Membership award, and all were in silver. According to some red cross documentation that I have, in 1956 the RC began to distinguish between actual gold and silver awards - and adopted the kanji to indicate this - 金色 (Gold Color) and 銀色 (Silver Color). So if I've got my info straight, all gold awards you find were issued in/after 1956. So this award, if I had to hazard a guess, is late 50's or early 60's. A hazardous guess though, it's hard to say. The simple pin attachment is somewhat of a clue - rather than the safety pin style, I think this was adopted to save in material use, possibly during the war and then afterwards for many years while things were tough and resources were more scarce in Japan - I have no written evidence to back this up, but at some point, there was a shift back to the more standard safety pin attachment that you find on clearly more modern orders, both gold and silver, the ones that are in what I refer to as a "leatherette" case - the black ones with the gold rims where the case halves meet. One other thing you can say, the thinner cases for men's awards are earlier ones too. The more modern cases are of the same width for both men's and women's awards with a simple interior change and the addition of a small gold circle below the first column of kanji to indicate at a glance that the case is for a woman's award (or at least I've never seen this circle on a man's award, so what else could it be for?) Makes manufacturing more standardized. But when specifically this change took place, I know not. If I had to hazard a guess, perhaps the 1970s. I'm getting long winded here, let me attempt to wrap up!! YES - there are differences in the medallion design as well - dimensional changes in the small enameled cross, changes in the bird, the suspension ball, and some other minor ones, but to what era are they linked??? Got me! There are simply far too few of these with their original award documents to be able to build an accurate picture. One does find a number of basic membership certificates, but not often with an actual medal. Certificates for orders of merit by themselves are really rare from what I can tell, though the orders themselves are quote common despite the actual cost to the original recipient!! If I had to guess, I'd say more of these were handed out for meritorious services than actual donations - again, speculation that I base solely on how common they are. Some variants are not common at all, but as a whole, these are easy to find and in good to excellent condition. This one below is probably an earlier order, but again - no idea to which era - but the kanji style is clearly different on the case, an earlier style, what appears to be leather wrapped on wood. The stripes are darker (albeit, faded on most of the front), but not as dark as they come, and the hook is externally sewn. Too bad the central disc is missing from the reverse! The enamel on this cross is also not flush with the metal, it is recessed to a degree (apparently earlier Sacred Sacred Treasures also had recessed enamel, but not sure if that indicates anything.) Note the lack of kanji indicating silver or gold. I certainly welcome all comments and/or corrections!!

Yikes! i was wondering if that could have been the case, but then was somewhat shocked at the LOW price if that was it. The hook and eye are definitely of a different flavor than the more commonly available ones, as is the case obviously. There must have been several makers of these awards, there are simply too many variants.

This 110K limit thing is killin' me....

A bit harder to come by than most. I really like the simplified pin style of the rosette and the ribbon. This one is in really nice condition, rosette's a bit dirty but not damaged. The medal and case are really nice:

No doubt! These routinely sell for around $30-$35 U.S. in this condition or better on Yahoo! Japan. The seller didn't start high either or try to "oversell" the item, this was just a case of, well, something..... You know, not to slam anyone in the free market, but it is my opinion that eMedals is way overpriced on pretty much everything and how they even do business is beyond me, not for those prices. But hey, more power to them if people are willing to pay those prices! Granted, they do sell some rare items too, but commonplace stuff? BUt geez.....with some of these recent eBay prices, making them look like a bargain! Well, I guess pretty badly!! My advice: stay off the booze and drugs while on eBay.......

Drum roll please....................... $193.50

Thanks! I definitely like the incredible variation one finds in the Red Cross awards. I'd like to see a few more with this type of case so I can examine the clasps to see if the gold ones all have the copper-colored rivets. These clasps are very cool, by far the most intricate I've seen on a Red Cross award!

Now that IS interesting! Sundays make sense, but I wonder why Thursdays? (paydays??) 35% increase - wow! Substantial!

Tim, not so sure about that! Yes, you'd think the rosette was not correct by virtue on the rays, but I have seen many of these earlier 4th Class awards with that very same rosette. I found this puzzling too, but perhaps it is indeed correct. Just by observation only, the pleated ones came about at a later period, though I'm not exactly sure when.

Not sure on the medal itself, but I believe the case is Meiji era, definitely not Showa.

I think I've posted this gold one before, but can't find it. Anyway, here it is again, now along with its silver counterpart! I was really pleased to able to find one of each with this interesting case style. No idea when these cases were used, but I'm wondering if they were the predecessor to the modern ones that are pretty common. I haven't seen many of this particular type. Note the rivets on the latch - copper color on the gold order and plain silver color on the other. Can't be certain if that was intentional or not until I see more of these:

I wouldn't call these rare, but compared to the ones in the black plastic cases, they are certainly uncommon! Anyway, new arrival, been wanting one of these for a while: In watching these more closely in recent times, I'm amazed by the amount of variation that occurs among them!

Yeah, wish I would have gotten into these years, and years ago though! Still, a lot of these do seem to be extreme examples, a lot owed to newbism, but that still baffles me considering there are tons of these medals and easy to find in really nice shape. I do sometimes wonder what the "feedback effect" is - on the surface of things, it does seem like those with tons of positive feedback are able to fetch more $$$$ than those with less feedback on comparable pieces. A trust thing??? Perhaps it is similar to the phenomenon of paying more money for the same thing at one venue vs. another simply because the service is better? Really quite interesting.

Basic China Incident medal with case (split in two parts at the hinge) - not the best quality auction pics., but the medal itself appeared to be in good condition - 81 Aussie Dollars, about $83.XX U.S. Wow. Didn't even have the wrapping paper! This gets better everyday....

Gotcha! A lot of these service rifles were relegated to school use for training at some point. I'm curious, what kind of stamp was placed over the top of the chrysanthemum, or is mum scrubbed?

Just wondering what might about this one might fetched 64,000 yen? Yeah, it's not the run-of-the-mill veteran replica in the plastic cases like you typically see. I guess that must be why?? Neat piece no doubt. Thoughts???

Would be a school stamp. Looks like Kita-Ao-Ko - North Blue School, kinda strange configuration to me. These are very cool finds. Is this a Type 30 by chance? Here's one I have from a Type 30 Carbine:

Looks like on the bar from left to right (in the picture) is the Taisho Enthronement, Manchurian Incident, Showa Enthronement, China Incident??, 2600 Year Anniversary, Munchukuo National Foundation, Pu Yi Visit to Japan. Sacred Treasure on his right, not sure about the breast star on the left. Assuming 3rd Class Rising Sun around the neck?

Nothing on the knob - just the "S" on the ring. The purple case is fairly common too, but the really cool ones are the hybrid black/purple cases!

Sweeeet. Makes me want to focus on higher orders!! What conditions are you using to photograph exactly? Have you tried macro settings at all?

Sure, awfully common, but what the heck, decided to show it anyway. The medal itself is really nice, not perfect. The case though is really, really nice. There a little white speck, lower right, that's about it! It's in really good shape, better than I was expecting. Plus, I hadn't acquired one in a purple case until now!

Rich, have a great vacation! And when you do go to the mint next summer, be sure to get lots of pics. to share here, would love to see those!! Look forward to the further evolution of this thread.....