congobrown

I am now in Cameroon. Does anyone know of any good places to go medal hunting? Tim

DERG riband dilema. Both the medals in the images below have been discussed in this thread before. My dilemma is about DERG era ribands. I have acquired several DERG era medals in the past that have the 'wrong' bars attached. I guess that the sellers just mix and match to get a better price if they have medals without bars and bars without medals. I think that the medals without ribands in the image here have the correct bars. I also think that the medal in the middle has the wrong bar but that the riband is the correct one for this bar. I believe this because of the 'factory' quality stitching to attach the riband - see the reverse. My question to the wise heads here is therefore, what medal does this bar and riband belong to. My Amharic isn't up to the task. DERG ribands are difficult to source and I would love to match this one with the right medal.

Thanks Guy, I will follow up on that line of enquiry. Tim

The one on the right is the Eritrea medal

I saw it - an excellent display, well done.

Nice find Owain

Images of Teachers Medals as promised although it would seem that I need to buy a better camera or steadier hands! Tim

I married the enemy! Thinking about it, the ribbon for the Teachers Medal that I have described above is a dead ringer for the Medal of the patriot Refugees (Exile Medal). Recycling ribbons may be in vogue? Tim

I am having a frustrating time with IT away from home. This morning I photographed my 3 'Honoured Education Professional' medals as illustrated by Owain three posts above. My laptop will not recognise my camera so I can't download them. They are now sitting on the desktop of my wife's laptop pending an opportunity to move them. As I sit in Tim Horton's in the backwoods of Quebec I am finding it all a bit of a struggle. I have the 'gold', silver and bronze. All three have the same script on the reverse and so there seems to be no indication of length of servoce for each. The ribbons are intact on all three and is predominantly dark blue (19 mm) with green yellow and red stripes at the border with the green on the outside at both ends. The red and yellow stripes are 2 mm each but the green is more like 3 mm but this could just be because of the way that the ribbon is made. I will upload the photos as soon as I am technically able as well as the other Teachers Medals that I have (Ulsterman - you are right in that the ribbons for the latter are red, yellow and green. Tim

I have to say that it was a little while ago and I can't remember where I found it and I haven't been able to find it again. Perhaps it has been taken down. I had copied it onto a hard drive but that has been playing up. I put it into a computer shop in London a week or so ago to see what they could recover. Transitting through London today, I dropped in to see how they were doing in recovering my data only to be told that the hard drive was a write off. Along with 160,000 tracks of iTunes I have lost the this article as well as much else. Not a great day!

Do I assume that is an ONUC medal on the wrong ribbon to the left of his Congo Service Medal?

Frustratingly no - except for the ribbon (and that doesn't match any of the 3 that I have bought this medal on!). I found a document on the web by DRAGOMIR M. ACOVIĆ entitled "SURVEY OF AWARDS OF ETHIOPIA Beograd, 1996/1999, 2002. I have tried to identify the DERG period medals from the descriptions which, although not exactly the same seem pretty close. I may of course be wrong. What I really need to get hold of now are the references. The exact text reads as follows: MEDAL FOR NATIONAL SERVICE Médaille pour le service civile Zivildienstmedaille Medalja za gradjansko službovanje Instituted by the DERG Decree 110/1977, amended and completed by Decrees 157/1979 and 169/1979 of 5th September 1979. O= Circular medal, ø 35 mm. B= Gold. D= Obverse of the medal displays a five-pointed star, a cogwheel, a compass and a book, all surrounded with Amharic circumscription (A). L= White with narrow orange middle stripe: 1st Class; Orange with narrow white middle stripe: 2nd Class. T= The Medal was awarded in 2 Classes, and was worn suspended from the Ribbon upon left breast: 1st Class: As described; 2nd Class: Same as described, only silver made, and different Ribbon. Motto= (A): For Long Service. K= The Medal was awarded for long civilian (Public) service. First Class was awarded for 20 years, and 2nd Class for 15 years. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Christoph Ernst Kredel: “Ethiopia Tikdem; Orden und Ehrenzeichen im so-zialistischen Äthiopien” (Orden-Militaria-Magazin; Jhrg.84, # 14- p. 342-343, # 15- p. 353-354, # 16/17- p. 379-381); Negarit Gazeta (38th Year, #5; Addis Ababa, 7th March, 1979);

I have now identified the medal on the left with the cog, book and dividers as the Medal for National Service. Instituted by the DERG Decree 110/1977, amended and completed by Decrees 157/1979 and 169/1979 of 5th September 1979.

Owain, That sounds like exactly the same ribbon as the one that I have on my copy. Very light material and with a slightly watered effect making the yellow a bit darker in the middle than at the sides. Mine seems like a good silver version. Tim

Owain, I am interested to see that the 25th Anniversary of Liberation Medal is on a yellow ribband. I had previously only seen it on a red and white ribband and then last week I bought one in Addis in what I believe to be its original box of issue (no maker's name) with the same yellow ribband as in your photo. Thoughts? Tim