RobW

And the reverses.

To all,

Here is a nice small italian vic mini group comprised of:

* War Merit Cross

* Commemorative War Medal 1915-1918

* Commemorative Medal for the Unification of Italy 1848-1918

* Interallied Victory Medal

The italian vic is 18 mm in diameter and has the Orsolini 'MOD' and 'Sacchini' marks on the bottom of the obverse.

These pics have also been posted on the 'WW1 Victory medals of the world' thread as well as some other Italian vic variety pics.

Close-ups to follow.

Regards,

Rob

Here are the close-ups.

The italian vic mini has been seen in a number of different diameters ranging from 12.5 mm - 18 mm. Even though this particular mini is 18 mm in diameter it has quite a great deal of detail. Such a lovely design.

Regards,

Rob

And the reverses.

To all,

Here is a nice small italian vic mini group comprised of:

* War Merit Cross

* Commemorative War Medal 1915-1918

* Commemorative Medal for the Unification of Italy 1848-1918

* Interallied Victory Medal

The italian vic is 18 mm in diameter and has the Orsolini 'MOD' and 'Sacchini' marks on the bottom of the obverse.

These pics have also been posted on the 'Italy - WW1 Victory Medal' thread under that specific country area as well.

Close-ups to follow.

Regards,

Rob

Rob,

On the positive note - will you please show us your documented crosses?

William

Hello William,

I can do that. The items are in transit at the moment from Slovenia, so they will take a bit of time to make there way to Australia. Once they arrive I shall scan the medals, boxes, and award certificates for the perusal of all.

There is already an existing thread at: 'Serbia - Different Types of Commemorative WW1', so I'll post the pics there.

Regards,

Rob

It seems that things are a bit quiet here at the moment so here is another uniface vic.

It was produced by an, as yet, unidentified French manufacturer. It is classed as either a Belgian unofficial model or a French unofficial model.

This one has a very lovely deep toned patina on both the obverse and reverse.

Regards,

Rob

And the same for the Disruptive Pattern Desert Uniform (DPDU). I am not sure why but this rank slide is a bit longer than its DPCU counterpart. Once again worn on the front centre of the shirt.

Once I track down the general cloth patches for General Duty Dress, Mess Dress, and Winter Dress I shall post pics.

Regards,

Rob

To all,

To add some Australian flavour here is the cloth rank patch for Army WO2 worn on the Disruptive Pattern Combat Uniform (DPCU). The addition of AUSTRALIA on the bottom of the rank slide is recent. This rank is worn on the front centre of the shirt.

Regards,

Rob

"By a matter of hours"?

That dealer had it for at least a year...

Hello new world,

It is all a matter of perspective. I was not specifically searching for the item until a related search led me to the same area and I noticed the group. After some other checking and research, by the time I had returned 'a couple of hours later' the item had sold!

On a related note it did actually have a good finish as it led me somewhere else where I picked up 2 Serbian Commemorative Cross' for the War of Liberation and Union, 1914-1918. One is the Arthus Bertrand produced cross with an award document to a Serbian officer, and the other a Huguenin Freres produced cross in a box to a French soldier, with the corresponding award document.

Even though I was disappointed at the time I am philosophical about such things and I have had a good result with the cross' so all is good. When I have time I will scan the items and post pics.

Regards,

Rob

To all,

I have just picked up the following item; a uniface French official vic. Having never seen one before I was surprised when I found it.

The reverse is universally smooth somewhat negating the possibility of it having been erased and the planchet is thinner which is consistent with other French uniface models.

Has anyone else seen such a variety?

Regards,

Rob

There seems to have been a large market in France for uniface medals because tens or hundreds of thousands of vets had their medals mounted in Frames with big service certificates. Often this was a second set of medals while the originals were kept to be worn. To make the mounting in the frame under glass easier the backs of the medals were sometimes removed (eg. on the CDG).

I assume the uniface were easier to mount and were often used in frames..

Best

Chris

Hello Chris,

Thanks for the info. I have just picked up the following item; a uniface French official vic. Having never seen one before I was surprised when I found it.

Has anyone else seen such a variety? Happy for any thoughts.

Regards,

Rob

Hello Tim and all,

I have done some more research on my Type 1 and have found what I think are some minor differences compared to those items posted so far. These are my observations only and do not come from a position of experience, so I could be totally wrong or off the mark. I have outlined the areas in question with a red or blue marking.

The details are:

Obverse

* A slightly narrower bordered edge on the arms of the cross.

* A different spacing of the lines on the arms; mine seems to be imperceptibly closer than those previously illustrated.

* Slight differences in the bayonet handle and the gap between the bayonet lug and helmet.

* The position and detail of a rivet on the top spline of the helmet (this could be a trick of the light)

* Minor differences in the rolling clouds on the top.

Reverse

* A convex base on the crown.

* Minor detail differences on the leaves.

* A slightly larger signature and different placement against the stalk and bottom leaves.

Again this is all from an uninformed eye.

Hope it is of use.

Regards,

Rob

To all,

Here is another small vic mini group in my collection. It is 'court mounted' where the ribbon forms part of the backing behind the medal in contrast to the 'swing mount' mini group previously posted.

L-R:

* Distinguished Service Order (with nice complete un-chipped enamels and intact top and bottom bars).

* Military Cross.

* 1914 Star with bar.

* British War Medal.

* Victory medal with Mention In Despatches emblem.

* Defence Medal.

* King George V Silver Jubilee Medal 1935.

The Military Cross and other medals (War Medal, Defence Medal and Jubilee medal) are made of silver which has toned nicely giving a slightly iridescent patina depending on the angle and lighting when it is viewed.

Regards,

Rob

That's a beautiful bar!

Tim

Hello Tim,

Yes the cuban group is a nice one. I actually picked it up while looking for a totally different vic item. Right time and place. It is however, becoming a bit more difficult of late to obtain good pre-revolution cuban material.

Regards,

Rob

Well, be paitient Rob. Even if the decision was to have a place set aside in one of the existing sub-forums, I would be happy with that. I see a lot of areas where there is no movement for weeks at a time. Guess it all depends on who is collecting what and when. Right now, there are only a couple of people actively posting on the subject here, so I imagine Admin has to take that into account as well.

Hey! At least we're having fun!
Tim

Hello Tim,

Fun is a major part of the hobby as well.

I often think I have reached an end point on collecting specific vic items from a particular country and then I see another pic of yet another variety, on places like these forums, and the chase and search continues.


Regards,
Rob

You guys have some amazing pieces in your collection.

Thanks Paul.

It is good to get the information out and amongst the collecting group. Makes for more interesting discussions.

And we still can't get a separate forum thread for the vic series !!

Regards,

Rob

And the reverses.

Regards,

Rob

As we start out, we can use this thread for Cuban Victory Medals, types, variations in medals/ribbons, etc.

Tim

Here is a Cuban group from the mid 1930's with a locally produced gilt finished vic, mounted on a nice 'Libertad' bar. I have a number of cuban vics and this is one of the gilt variety.

Group consists of:

* Order of Military Merit 4th class cross, with dark red enamel.

* Long Service medal, with 5 chevron devices.

* Unofficial Cuban victory medal.

* National Reconciliation medal, with 1 star device.

The victory medal was not made by Chobillon in France and accordingly does not have the 'C.Charles' makers mark on the obverse. This vic was produced locally in Havana by the firm of Vilardebo & Riera. They were the official maker of the Cuban Army medals and decorations. It very closely resembles the official vic strike from Chobillon.

Regards,

Rob

And here it is.

Regards,

Rob

You guys have some amazing pieces in your collection. I had never seen a Siam piece before. How many were awarded? I am scared to think of what they go for!

Hello Paul R and others,

I picked my original Siam vic up early last year in Sydney, Aust after a long-ish search. As Tim B has indicated they are not cheap either.

While both the Siam and Brazil vic are the scarcest of the set I would say that the Brazil vic is in fact the harder one to obtain.

I will post better pics of obverse & reverse of the one in my collection shortly.

Regards,

Rob

Hello Tim,

A bit of topic but; Yes I do collect other items but in the main as they relate to the vic series.

I have a number of small and medium sized groups, full and mini, all with vics. My main theme would be the vic series and I look at the associated medals as the vic was generally not awarded in isolation (except maybe in the case of the U.S. who awarded the vic in place of a service medal, and had battle and service clasps etc...).

I will be posting pics of a nice Cuban vic group later, same medal and theme.

Regards,

Rob

That is one beautiful bar. I can see why you would be upset in losing it. What did it go for?

Paul,

Sold for £595.

The search for a similar group continues !

Regards,

Rob

And the reverses.

Regards,

Rob

To all,

I recently missed out on this group by a matter of hours but thought I would post the pics to see what the consensus is.

The group was described as:

* Order of the White Eagle, Knight with swords

* Milosh Oblitch Bravery small gold

* Milosh Oblitch Bravery small gold

* Milosh Oblitch Bravery large silver

* Retreat to Albania 1915

* Medal for Military Virtue 1883

* Balkan War medal 1912

* 2nd Balkan War Cross 1913

* 1914-1918 War Cross

While there is a fair degree of damage to the Order of the White Eagle I would still have considered this a good group.

Happy to hear from those with considerably more experience in this area than I.

Regards,

Rob