Hungary Hungarian People's Republic Awards

[Gordon Craig]

Richard,

Thanks very much for posting the pictures of the medals and the case. As I suspected the one Charles and I have owned is a copy. The picture of the attachment ring is as I thought it should. Not like the one on my medal. Now everyone on the forum knows how to tell a real one from a fake. Lots of ways once you look at the real thing and then the fake. If you ever come across another case or decide to part with your it would find a good home with me. Your pictures are really excellent and we all owe you a big vote of thanks for taking the time and effort to post them.

Regards,

Gordon

[Hauptmann]

a smelly tunic

Hi Charles,

Sorry I didn't see this earlier. Got pulled way visiting with some friends from Bowdon and only now getting back to finishing up replies and such.

Really love the tunic. Great piece and with the ribbon bar too! A nice extra bonus. Hope it airs out okay for you.

Dan

[Gordon Craig]

Gents,

Another find at the City Park Market Sunday morning was a cased "Order of Merit for the Socialist Hungary. This Order was instituted in 1976. And therein lies my question for today. Charles has already posted pictures of his copy of this medal and it appears to be a post 1980 as is mine because of the type of pin used on the back and the metal triangle in the ribbon. Since this order was introduced prior to 1980 does anyone out there have one of these orders made before 1980? It would be great to see the back for comparison purposes and also the case. This case is of the wooden painted variety and I would imagine earlier cases came in the leatherette covered style. Here are pictures of my order.

[Gordon Craig]

The back of the order.

[Gordon Craig]

The exterior of the case.

[Hauptmann]

Hi all,

Well, the Munkasor group from Charles just arrived today. OUTSTANDING!!!! Even more impressive in person than on the group shot and that's saying alot! I love it even more now than when I first saw the pic... absolutely fantastic!

Charles... thanks so much for this! It now has an extremely honored place in my collections and again... I'll have to name a wing after you once we add on to the basement, etc., down the road. And you'll definitely have to come visit the kiddies (often) once you're back home.

I'll try to do some additional shots and post as I definitely want to learn all I can about this group.

Thanks again!!!!!!!!

Dan

[Ulsterman]

O.K., not the greatest scan, but heres a nice one-the sports medal. Established before the Communists seized power in 1949, this was still awarded and allowed to be worn until 1990.

This is the silver class. I am still working on the translation of the criteria though in both the big and tiny book. Again from our friend Farkas's medal shop.

[hunyadi]

Ulstermann -

From the Little Blue Bible - it states (roughly) - Founded in 1947 in the XXXII Law Article. THe "Hungarian Republic Sport Medal" was to be bestowed by the Presidents Council for merit in sport. (During WW2 individuals who particiapted in international and national events and placed high were given awards by the state to recognise thier achievments in additon to whatever award they were given at the event) Like the 1947 version and the later reinstated 1968 version these came in three grades: bronze, silver and gold. In the 1968 version the award was given by the National Physical Fitness and Sport Ministry and the award was determined by the same ministers council. With each medal came a cash award: Gold 5000 forint, Silver 4000 forint, Bronze 3000 forint. Judging by the ammount awarded these were given in high regard. I know that a gold grade was given to Csanadi Arpad for his participation in the Olympics and he was also awarded the Order of Merit of Socialist Hungary...

[hunyadi]

This little one came my way reently and its a very interesting early award. It is just a simple Labor Merit Medal (type II) insituted in 1954. (Type I was similar in design but was a solid piece of tombak - not enameled or as nice) Between 1954 and 1956 the Type II was awarded: 1954- 3964 times, 1955 - 34975 times, 1956 - 2925. This particular medal was awarded until 1963 when the Bronze Grade of the Order of Labor was given in its place. What it interesting about this one is that it is clearly an early piece (the one on the Rigth). The blue enamel is darker, the gold details are real gold. Comparative shot with a late 1950's version on the left - the enamel is lighter and the gold details are less pronounced.

Edited March 16, 2007 by hunyadi

[hunyadi]

in the box

[Hauptmann]

Hi Charles,

Beautiful! You know how partial I am to these. So by "real gold" do you mean that the hammer and wheat sheaf are gold like the H&S's on Soviet OGPW... or that they are a heavy gold plate on these early ones?

Dan

[hunyadi]

Also the interesting part of this is the box that it came in. The box is a nice leatherette style and bears the Rakosi Coat of Arms on it. But the case is longer - more longer than I have ever seen before. Normaly the case this medal came in would be about 70mm wide and 115mm long. This one is 70mm wide and 135 mm long. Nice big coat of arms to boot!

[hunyadi]

Hi Charles,

Beautiful! You know how partial I am to these. So by "real gold" do you mean that the hammer and wheat sheaf are gold like the H&S's on Soviet OGPW... or that they are a heavy gold plate on these early ones?

Dan

Hey Dan - I am going to guess that these are heavily gold plated - but so are the late 1950's - but you can clearly see that the "gold" on the latter version is just not as pronounced as this one - its night and day when it comes to the quality and the detail.

[Hauptmann]

Hey Dan - I am going to guess that these are heavily gold plated - but so are the late 1950's - but you can clearly see that the "gold" on the latter version is just not as pronounced as this one - its night and day when it comes to the quality and the detail.

Definitely... outstanding!!!! And that case is a real beauty too. Yet another variation. One could almost just collect the cases!

Keep findin' them great goodies my friend! When you come back you'll have to open a full blown Hungarian museum.

Dan

[Ulsterman]

Definitely... outstanding!!!! And that case is a real beauty too. Yet another variation. One could almost just collect the cases!

Keep findin' them great goodies my friend! When you come back you'll have to open a full blown Hungarian museum.

Dan

Ditto!

[Hauptmann]

Hi all,

My latest editions... again many thanks to Charles!

Long Service medals... only need the 40 Years to have the complete set:

[Hauptmann]

Police medal in Gold:

[Hauptmann]

And last but not least a retirement box:

Again many thanks to Charles for all his efforts in finding and acquiring these for me and shipping them over. I'm deeply grateful for all your help my friend!

Dan

[Hauptmann]

Charles... I just noticed there's a different color interior in my box than yours. I wondered if there was any significance to that?

Hope you don't mind but I grabbed your pic and put it here for comparison to mine above:

Dan

[hunyadi]

Charles... I just noticed there's a different color interior in my box than yours. I wondered if there was any significance to that?

Hope you don't mind but I grabbed your pic and put it here for comparison to mine above:

Dan

To my knowledge there are several variations to the box - some have a bronze relief on the lid (from 'dealer' stories these were the earlier ones) others have the painted metal versionlike the ones we have. I had not noticed the difference in the plastic interior, but I think that is simply just a construction anomoly nothing more. But one could speculate that green is Army and blue is Airforce....but thats just speculation.

[Hauptmann]

Hi Charles,

That would be neat if the theory turned out to be true. At the very least it's a nice variation (I wonder if there are more? ) to collect on these.

Dan

[seb16trs]

hello, I don't like the enamel work of this order... Mine is perfect; do you believe the another one I show you below is a possible fake? This item is proposed from Budapest from "E".

Edited July 28, 2007 by seb16trs

[hunyadi]

This is an original, but its from the 1980's when they used a cold enamel. It is my belief that these were Old Stock leftovers that the State mint sold to the public a couple of years ago.

[Zsolt]

hello, I don't like the enamel work of this order... Mine is perfect; do you believe the another one I show you below is a possible fake? This item is proposed from Budapest from "E".

Hi, Sebastian !

I wrote to You in the eBay message, I don't offer on the eBay copies, fakes, or other junks. Only guaranteed original medals and badges. I can't understand Your mistrust.

Regards: Zsolt (croma2002)

( Sorry for the OFF )

Edited July 28, 2007 by Zsolt

[seb16trs]

Hi, Sebastian !

I wrote to You in the eBay message, I don't offer on the eBay copies, fakes, or other junks. Only guaranteed original medals and badges. I can't understand Your mistrust.

Regards: Zsolt (croma2002)

( Sorry for the OFF )

hello, many thanks for your public explanation. Well, I started collecting with soviet awards,and in this field one must have the habit of high-quality work about enamels. I know communist hungarain follows another tradition, but I've been surprised to see the enamel not touching the tip of the star branch, to see some enamel paint flushing above the edges... And on my red star the finition is better, without ANY enamel flushing. You can tell I exagerate, but such items are problematic with other kinds of medals, specially soviet or east-german ones.

all in all, I'm happy to have discovered a new delaer on Ebay...

Edited July 29, 2007 by seb16trs