paja

First type of submarine badge.

One more "unknown producer", couple of similar orders can be seen in Car/Muhić book but none of them are looking exactly like this.

Elements of 4th and 5th class orders combined together. Crown is strange, my first thought when I saw it was that someone replaced it, but now I think there's bigger probability that it's original. Pieces of white enamel are still there together with something that looks like traces of red enamel in the upper part of the crown.

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_11_2014/post-7937-0-96223000-1415400031.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_11_2014/post-7937-0-63393800-1415400128.jpg

Now something really unusual.

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_11_2014/post-7937-0-86566400-1415398557.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_11_2014/post-7937-0-04176500-1415398575.jpg

While I am inclined to smell fake on most occasions I have another thought which has crossed my mind. I suspect these are privately made pieces, one has to remember that the Obrenovich dynasty ceased to exist in 1903 thank to Apis and his friends and along with them the Orders Of Takovo and Milosh Obolich. As may people may be aware the difference in time between receiving notification of the award and receiving insignia can be a very long period some times a couple of years. So someone awarded a Takovo in 1902 or 03 would not have received it due to the defenestration of Belgrade and I cannot imagine the Karageorgovich issuing Obrenovich insignia (as likely as the DDR issuing Nazi insignia). So I suspect that the recipient popped along to their pet jeweller with a picture of the insignia, thus the errors due to non Serb readers. It may be a severely flawed hypothesis but I would be interested in hearing others thoughts.

Paul

Your theory made me think of something else. Perhaps we are dealing with a replacement order, I can easily imagine foreign recipient avoiding official channels and ordering new piece from one of the workshops, if nothing that must have been much simpler.

PS just one small correction, order that went to history together with Obrenovićs was Order of Miloš (Obrenović) the Great. Miloš Obilić was bravery medal introduced by the rival dynasty.

Found it: http://www.emedals.com/highlighted-offerings/europe/serbia/orders/order-of-takovo/an-unusual-serbian-cross-of-takovo-french-made-eu7057?vmcchk=1

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_11_2014/post-7937-0-54896300-1415317812.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_11_2014/post-7937-0-74513400-1415317821.jpg

Language errors are not that rare, like you mentioned most often use of Latin alphabet letters instead of Cyrillic (N instead of Н, Z instead of З, H instead of И, R instead of B) also use of different symbols for the same letter. But I've never seen this type of inscription or inscription with these type of mistakes, I went through my archive and available literature but I wasn't able to find one more example like that.

Apart from the inscription one more unusual detail is the fact that the bow that connects palm branches in enameled! So far I've seen only one Takovo star with bow like that (in a book), all the rest were not enameled. And those palm branches are different from what I'm used to seeing.

All in all very strange looking star. By the way there was one very unusual 4th class on emedals auction not that long ago, and that order also had boar's head hallmark.

On the other hand details like that can be seen on some Arthus-Bertrand pieces + remember that boar's head hallmark, so far matches up.

Take for comparison this star of the Order of St. Sava from emedals. Cross shape (notice oval piece in the center, perhaps something like that was originally on Takovo as well) + two extra needles.

I agree about the tips, but I've noticed more unusual details. Parts of the star that form "Iron Cross" looking shape are marked on the photo, also those two extra needles which are not something you can see on "regular" Takovo.

Just for comparison.

I am not sure but the hallmark on the needle seems to be French (boar's head).

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_11_2014/post-7937-0-27793200-1415301844.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_11_2014/post-7937-0-23160300-1415301891.jpg

It got sold on ebay last month, I've never seen anything like that before. The shape of the star is obviously different but take a look at the badge especially the inscription (КНПЗА И ОТСЧЗСТВО).

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_11_2014/post-7937-0-09817700-1415301757.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_11_2014/post-7937-0-17625400-1415301679.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_11_2014/post-7937-0-71708600-1415301728.jpg

Photos.

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_11_2014/post-7937-0-94646400-1415300360.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_11_2014/post-7937-0-75418300-1415300381.jpg

From the creator of the Yugoslav Grand Star and Hero of Socialist Labor - Order of Freedom!

"A museum level replica, to make this order takes nearly one year!!!! All made with hands!! very very hard to make... you can never find a same quality Order in the World!!!!"

http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Order-of-the-Freedom-highest-military-Order-medal-in-yugoslavia-top-rare-/281483699443?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4189bc64f3

Close-up.

Probaly one of these, Commemorative Medal of Serbian Warriors - 100 Years Since Great War 1914-1918 (Спомен медаља српских ратника - 100 година од Великог рата 1914-1918) awarded by the Club of Generals and Admirals of Serbia.

One of the recipients, colonel Michael Van Meurs, former CISM General Secretary.

Close-up.

Medals for Contribution to the Defense System of the Republic of Serbia.

You're welcome, glad if I could help. I enjoy discussions about details like that.

Best regards!

So, it's necessary to find out when "900" was added.

Exactly! You have mentioned orders with torches, I suppose that you are talking about Order of Military Merits even though torches are also used on Brotherhood&Unity. Earlier orders with 5 torches and central red stars with narrow edges don't have 900, at lest I haven't seen one like that so far. 5 torches type with red star with wider edges can be seen both with or without 900 (but I also have one 3rd class order like that that's definitely made out of silver but has no hallmarks at all). But silver 6 torches types all have 900! I've been trying to find photos of 6 torches type without 900, seen dozens of them, they all have that hallmark.

If we take that 6 torches type was introduced after constitutional change in 1963 I would say that 900 was introduced sometime before that year. That's about as close as I can get...

Unfortunately I don't have any literature about socialist decorations so all I write are some conclusions I made based on what I've seen.

Likewise.

To be honest I am really not sure about this. I thought that the narrow circle type was first in use because I think that tombak type, which is the last type, is more similar to wide circle orders. So it looked logical to me that the order was like this:

1. silver narrow circle

2. silver wide cirlce

3. tombak wide circle

Generally speaking I think those 900 hallmarks were introduced later, orders that were made earlier only had IKOM and (or only) rooster hallmarks. My wider circle order has IKOM, rooster and 900 hallmarks, on the other hand narrow circle has just IKOM and rooster. Both of them were made out of the same quality silver 900, on narrow circle type without 900 hallmark rooster is in hexagon. Is that maybe the same case with decorations from your collection?

Your 3rd class wide circle type is 72.1 and mine is 67.8, narrow 65.5 - 60.5 so weights are unfortunatelly very relative thing when it comes to Yugoslav decorations...