Romania My newest addition..

[Blitz]

I have been an Imperial man for the past two years after my conversion into Baden, but now Iv'e decided to try something new for a change. Romania. When one thinks of Romania, I'm sure most US and western-european people only think of communism and Romania as a people's republic, part of the Eastern Block. But they forget or don't know that before that Romania was a Kingdom and a kingdom whose ruling house's name was Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. That is, a branch of the same family who ruled Germany untill 1918. So there was a Hohenzollern still ruling in a european country up to 1947, when the communists took over. Interesting no?

I first became intrigued with Romania due to it's fascinating history (particularily the connection with Prussia) and the surprizing beauty of it's orders two years ago. The Romanian crown order beign one, but also the orders like the order of Carol I, military merit order of Michael the Brave and the order of Romanian Star. Back then I just started collecting Imperial Germany and there was no reason to pick another field at the time. But the interest has been there, sometimes nagging at me for two years untill I decided to do something about it three weeks ago. So I started to search the web for books on the subject, as it's my principle to have references at hand BEFORE BUYING ANYTHING. I found two romanian books by name, but failed to locate any for sale and Kieltmanns Phaleristik Rum?nien band 1 from the 1970's, witch could be found, so I bought it. I've since learned that it's still the standard reference book on romanian awards.

Anyways.. ..After It came in the post and I read it through a couple of times, I came to a decision to expand my area of interest to the Romanian kingdom. My primary reason for this was (besides the fact that the orders are mostly still cheap and very beatifull) that my Imperial collection has reached a point where I'm not interested in the cheap, common awards that I could buy in an instant and the ones I'm interested in, aren't financially within my grasp. So this is my way of breaking a deadlock. It doesn't mean that I've stopped collecting imperial germany, it just means that my collecting has to adopt to my life's situation, studying not beign the most fiscally sound thing to do from a collecting point-of-view.

So, to make a long story short (too late I guess) I saw this item and bought it. A commanders cross of the romanian Crown order, cased naturally. These can be divided into two types; 1st type was awarded from 1881 to 1932 and it had a Crown in it's center and the monogram of Carol the first between the crosses arms as opposed to the second type (1932-1947) witch as you can see, has the setup reversed. The second type was also divided into a civil and military division, witch are easily told apart by the military division's crown as civil division crosses do not have one. To my knowledge all types could be awarded with swords, as mine was. This cross also has the distinctive wartime ribbon, with the golden stripes on it's edges. The order had five classes: Grand cross, Grand officer, commander, officer and knight. The commanders cross was awarded to colonels. The order aswell as most Romanian orders were awarded to other soldiers from other Axis powers and they are quite common with germans.

This example was apparently made by Monetaria Nationala in Buckarest and awarded during ww2. The quality isn't the best possible, but I still find the combination very attractive, don't you?

Ps. Thank you so much for helping me out Dragos! My level of knowledge wouldn't be the same without your assistance.

[Blitz]

The case with the monogram of Michael I, the last king Romania. He is still alive by the way and has a home in Romania along with his other home is Switzerland..

[Blitz]

Closeup of the obverse..

[Blitz]

Reverse..

[Blitz]

An overview of the cross with it's nice long neckribbon...

[Blitz]

And a shot of the markings on the ring. Sadly this is best that I can do at the moment.. There appears to be a number "722" and a series of other markings and the word "silber". Nothing much I can tell fro these, I hope someone else will have better luck. Thanks for watching and I'm eagerly awaiting your comments.

[Gerd Becker]

So, that was it, what you were hiding from me.

Its a beauty, Antti Wonderful piece

Gerd

[Carol I]

And a shot of the markings on the ring. Sadly this is best that I can do at the moment.. There appears to be a number "722" and a series of other markings and the word "silber". Nothing much I can tell fro these, I hope someone else will have better luck. Thanks for watching and I'm eagerly awaiting your comments.

Congratulations Blitz for your Commander's cross of the Order of the Crown of Romania.

The oval hallmark after "SILBER" probably has "CFZ" inside. It is the mark of Zimmermann of Pforzheim, so your badge is actually manufactured in Germany under licence from the National Mint in Bucharest. This also explains the "silber" mark. And, if I remember right, the diamond-shaped mark has the logo of the National Mint ("MN").

[Kev in Deva]

Hallo Blitz

Beautiful piece and you can be sure addictive, even down to the smaller ones.

WOW I some how managed to get a stereo picture

Kevin in Deva

Edited December 14, 2006 by Kev in Deva

[hunyadi]

Beautiful items! I wish I had some of my own

[Paul R]

You guys have some beatiful awards! So many focuses... so little money!

[Riley1965]

BEAUTIFUL!!! AWESOME!!! WOW!!! I already have too many addictions!!! Can I afford another...

Doc

[Blitz]

Thanks so much guys! As far as I can tell without my loope in hand, it does have Zimmermans mark.. Very interesting..

[Chris Boonzaier]

What promted this new direction? Did you just wake up one morning and say.... Hmmm... Romanian collection is a natural extention of baden..... ;-)

[Paul R]

The Romanians did have some nice looking medals! I love that enamel in the Commanders' level order in the first posting!

[Blitz]

Chris's question is not without merit. Imperial Baden isn't exactly next door to the kingdom of Romania. Though it's been a while I'll try and reply.

My problems started with my ambitions as a collector. It took me over a year to complete a phase of my Baden collection and I was allready running out of options. There were basically big two awards on my "get it" list. A Z?hringer l?wenorden commander and the commanders star. Those two combined will cost me (in the future) atleast 5000 euros. Now I'm no beggar, but as a student back then and now, I do have limited means in my disposal and it seemed quite alot of money. And with the realisation that my hobby would die if I bought an award or two per year, I changed course. I still collected Baden, but took sidesteps like the 2nd cl. KO and after that, I spent months saving up for the SOS trip in 2006. After I returned I got interested in a new Imperial land, Reuss. There was something very interesting in the Reuss honour cross and the small princely enclave. So I decided to start with a bang. There was a rather unique Reuss item in the spring auction in Hermann Historica; the highest class of the Reuss honour cross with a wehrpass for a Reuss Prince (see pic). I went after it. I seem to remember that my high bid was about 500 euros short of what winner of the auction paid for it. I lost and I learned again that my means were limited. What followed was a six months period when I didn't really buy anything. I didn't have the means and I had to save money either way. During the fall and winter of last year, I browsed dealer sites again and again out of boredom and to keep my collecting alive one way or the other.. And I started to looking outside imperial stuff because I had seen them so many times. I noticed that romanian orders looked very interesting.. That got me curious and I started to dig in to their history and found out that their old ruling house was of the Hohenzollerns! A de facto extension of Imperial Germany.. Realizing the huge difference in prices got me even more curious. So I bought a book on them. After that I was pretty much sold.

My collecting has followed a predictable pattern for a while now; first I get interested in the history, after that I buy books, after that I buy awards and after that I write something. In imperial germany (generally speaking), I was and I still am interested in the history, I buy books, collect awards and I have and I am writing something for publishing for the collecting public. In 2005 I completed a 4 month project that is to be published in the future (when I cannot say). This year I have written an article of Baden, first of many that will be published in a finnish numismatic association's magazine, in september and I have writted an article on the romanian crown order that was published in april.

So there is my answer..

[Chris Boonzaier]

Blitz!!!

Collect PAPER !!!

Its waaaaay cheaper and easy to reserch!!!

[Blitz]

I do and I will, but it's just not my main thing. Award docs and such are important and can be very beautifull. But they just don't have the buzz or whatever you call it. Atleast not for me.

[Guest Rick Research]

It's the enamel.

Common denominator between Baden and Rumania is the aesthetic appeal of fine looking awards.

They are PRETTY... not like all that UGLY zinky stuff.

That's what lured me from Imperial German to Soviet when everything I could afford or ever would be able to find disappeared in the mid 1990s. Now that has happened to Soviet as well-- I'm priced out, and reduced to getting what is already in my Viking horde researched.

So I've branched out into other things as well, too.

I think part of the allure is something new, something unknown, something "special" that is not the Flavor Of The Month for everybody else, that is affordable and at least available enough not to go into a Nothing New coma.

[Blitz]

It's the enamel.

Common denominator between Baden and Rumania is the aesthetic appeal of fine looking awards.

They are PRETTY... not like all that UGLY zinky stuff.

That's what lured me from Imperial German to Soviet when everything I could afford or ever would be able to find disappeared in the mid 1990s. Now that has happened to Soviet as well-- I'm priced out, and reduced to getting what is already in my Viking horde researched.

So I've branched out into other things as well, too.

I think part of the allure is something new, something unknown, something "special" that is not the Flavor Of The Month for everybody else, that is affordable and at least available enough not to go into a Nothing New coma.

Also very true. It was beauty that drew me into collecting Baden in the first place after two years of collecting iron crosses and the like. Besides the history, availability and price, it was beauty that effected a shift to Romania.

[nesredep]

Hi

Very impressing awards,in exellent condition.

Regards

Nesredep