Dieter3

Fascinating! I had no idea there were even Merit Medals from Manchukuo. Awesome! But no basic meber medal for the Red Cross? And they really one-uped the Japan Red Cross for the Honorary Membership medal! Much nicer! First-rate thread, no doubt!

HA! But what a horrible concoction!

I can't make out those letters. Bottom looks like "D?", can't read top one at all. Can you make them out?

EXCELLENT! These are truly fantastic pieces. Thanks for illuminating this lovely line!

Here is a "SL" for 1991 - Heisei 10th Year: So the "L" is consistent with 1991, but "S"? I'm lost.

Very nice thread! I have not collected any of these, but I'm sure interested now that you've shown so much variety here. Thanks! Do you think though that the green one is really green, or is it a faded turquoise?

Thanks! Super AWESOME!

Phaleristic racism, I love it! That is too funny!

Definitely interested to see this! I find it so uncool when sets are broken up like this, but I understand why a business person would do it. I personally would never do so, not even to make extra bucks. There is a ceratain immorality to it in my little world, but..... ....this is true, and a hard point to argue. Please elaborate on ESM. Thanks.

Very nice compilation!!

My pleasure! Glad you enjoyed seeing it. The seals are kinda nice. They do add a little color to the documents that have only black and white images of the medals on them! Would love to see more Chinese order documents!

Hey, it's what I do best!

I have not seen a flat reverse with marks either. D would be year number 4.... A=1980, B=81, C=82, D=83..........right? And E = May - which makes sense - characters applied when manufactured, not when issued - so Pieter's July award would not likely have "G" as it would have been made in advance - is that what you are getting at?

1920! I'm not sure of the name though, kind of strange "Kousen" (?) - last name is easy - Hashimoto, but not sure on that first name.

Fatter wallet, but smaller collection......

Is it safe to assume that the marks would have started with "A"? If we go off of that assumption (and assumptions can be dangerous) and if Pieter's "DE" was awarded in 1983, could the start then have been in 1980? If this is true, then we should see upwards of "W", (possibly "X" if any old style medals were ever made in 2003), but no "Y" or "Z"" as the first character. Do we know this to be the case? As for the 2nd "digit" - if that represents a month, we should see A thru L. This makes sense, but do we know this to be the case? Also, we introduce an issue with this theory - in 2003, the letters appear to recycle back to "A" - but then we see the use of a number as the second mark - but our problem is that we only have 0 thru 9! We'd be missing two months in this scheme. What do you think gents?

There was what appeared to be a fairly nice 4th class document from the 1st Sino-Japanese war on Yahoo! Japan a week ago or so. BIN was 52,000 yen - it actually went for more than a week I think without a buyer. I didn't think the price was unreasonable actually, considering the condition and the pre-1900 date. I was sooooo tempted, but I just couldn't do it. Even though the exchange rate has dramatically improved over the past month or so, I had to control myself.

Hi Martin, I think the black cases can definitely have the appearance of different shades to the black, like some do appear to have a brownish d even purplish tint to them. Something I wonder about more though is the woman's version - I've only ever seen black-toned cases. I do wonder if these ever appeared in the other colors? I've also never been fortunate enough to see one with its wrapping paper, though the surely must exist. Of the ones I've seen, only eBay sellers tend to show photos of the hallmarks, and I've only noted the "S" and "Y" on female awards. It would certainly make sense that they came from all makers, but I just don't know. A woman's award from the Japan Mint with the proper wrapper in a hybrid color case - perhaps the ultimate rarity among the Showa Enthronement Commemorative medals!!!???

The document and medal are not related, just posting, so really just guessing that the medal is Taisho (but possibly late Meiji?). Ever notice how the medal decals on the Showa-era documents are better representatives of the actual medal? Anyway, not the best medal but not the worst. Ribbon shows fade and soiling, but the gold plate is still pretty good. Would like to find nicer.

Finally posted, here it is: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/58252-a-couple-of-golden-kite-documents-5th-and-6th-class/ Somewhat redundant to add this particular reply, but what the heck....

5th Class, awarded to Mr. Masataka Nabeyama (I think), #292,553, September 24th, 1940.

Here is that one 6th Class awarded to the same gent as the Nomonhan Border Incident one. Finally got around to it Nick! Mr. Yonekichi Kai, #215,549, May 28th, 1939.

Better "safe" than sorry.....

NICE!!! Thanks for showing those!