Hungary Hungarian Red Cross Awards

[Ulsterman]

By the way- I think your #21 is a mule-that is a 1950/1960s red cross/blood donation medal married to a wrong medal ribbon. The earlier blood donation medals seem to have paralleled the Soviet ones.

[Gordon Craig]

Jeff,

I think that you are correct. I should have noticed that. I don't own one of these particular medals because I haven't found a cased one but I have certainly seen them looking like the picture that you posted.

Regards,

Gordon

[redcross]

I'm not certain about era's

the blood donor medals on the blue ribbons

start I think in the 70's,

the one some are saying may be on the wrong ribbon

may go back to the 50's

but I have seen it as I have shown if many times

either some evil soul reribboned some loose medals

or perhaps some actually came that way

without information itis hardd to date medals

would that I had the luxury of only buying cased medals

[with original, not replacement cases]

then you could use cases to help date

but the best thing would be to have award certificates

with the medals - many red cross societies have

virutally no information about their obsolete awards

oh, well, I guessss that give us something to do

[Ulsterman]

Interesting-I haven't seen any Red Cross medals like the above on ribbons (I note several on eBay like mine though) but if they are out there, perhaps they are a "transition" stage (1960s?) where earlier made enameled pieces were married to ribbons.

If only the Hungarian Red Cross would respond to my questions. still, there MUST and are people alive today who can answer these questions as it is all within living memory.

Did the Hungarian red cross have a magazine?

[Gordon Craig]

Gents,

Had some time last night and this morning so went through some of my boxes of medals and pulled out these cased red cross ones. They are all in cases that date from the HUPR period. Red Crosses comments about medals being in the correct cases is well taken and I'll cover that in these posts as well. His comment that award documents really help is true to a point. Documents and medals can be married up by someone in the past and unless you got both from the original recipient they are not a 100% guarantee of period of the medal either. Unless, of course, there is a picture of the medal on the award document. Here goes for an early cased 10 blood donations medal. If you have been following the forum for a while you will know from so of Charles' posts that you can date the time period of the case fairly accurately from the type of sole plate used.

This case is one of the wooden ones with a simulated leather covering.

Edited October 22, 2007 by Gordon Craig

[Gordon Craig]

Interior of the case.

[Gordon Craig]

A close up of the award.

[Gordon Craig]

The bottom of the case.

[Gordon Craig]

Another of these 10 donation medals but in the later plastic case.

[Gordon Craig]

A close-up of the medal and the interior of the case.

[Gordon Craig]

Another ealry wooden case but this time in a blue simulated leather case. This is the Kiv?l? V?rad?. It fits the case exactly and obviously belongs in it.

[Gordon Craig]

The interior of the case showing the medal.

[Gordon Craig]

The sole plate of this case.

[Gordon Craig]

The next medal is one previously pictured by Red Cross but this time in a Rakoci era case. The gold is missing from the cim but you can still see the outline of it in the case materila. I am not sold on this being the correct case. The problem with Hungarian awards, especially those with points/rays as part of the design, even when they are in the correct cases they don't always fit inside the circular depression in the bottom of the case. Judge for your self.

Edited October 22, 2007 by Gordon Craig

[Gordon Craig]

The interior of the case showing the medal and the miniature.

[Gordon Craig]

The sole plate. Some months ago when Charles and I visited the Hungarian National Museum and talked to the medasl curator I asked about Hungarian Red Cross medals. They were way outside his expertise and suggested that we go to the Health Museum. I was supposed to write a letter to the Health Museum but have not done so yet. Probably a good place to visit to further our knowledge on these awards.

Regards,

Gordon

Edited October 22, 2007 by Gordon Craig

[Zsolt]

The sole plate. Some months ago when Charles and I visited the Hungarian National Museum and talked to the medasl curator I asked about Hungarian Red Cross medals. They were way outside his expertise and suggested that we go to the Health Museum. I was supposed to write a letter to the Health Museum but have not done so yet. Probably a good place to visit to further our knowledge on these awards.

Regards,

Gordon

Hi,

This box isn't belong to the red cross medal. This medal is from the 70's - 80's. But this box is for the Miners Service medal 1st type from 1956.

Regards: Zsolt

[Gordon Craig]

Zsolt,

Thanks for your input. I was fairly sure the medal and the box didn't go together but wasn't sure what time frame the medal came from. Now we know it is from the HUPR period that helps a lot. Also gives me a box to put one of my miner's medals in. Do you have a picture of the correct box for this Red Cross medal that you can post?

Regards,

Gordon

[Zsolt]

Hi Gordon,

I know the following 3 types of boxes for this medal:

The first: I think it is the oldest.

[Zsolt]

The next:

[Zsolt]

And the last type ( it is full plastic )

[redcross]

regarding the merit medal,

besides the difference in cases

isn't there also a difference in construction

I have one, I imagine early version

which uses hard enamel for all the color parts

while later versions, hard enamel is only used for

the red cross, and the blue and white circles are soft enamel,

there is perhaps another version where it is all soft enamel

[Gordon Craig]

Zsolt,

Thanks for posting the different cases for these medals. The last all plastic case that you posted is the same one I showed in post #15 and 16. Do you know what year they started using this type of case?

Regards,

Gordon

[Zsolt]

Zsolt,

Thanks for posting the different cases for these medals. The last all plastic case that you posted is the same one I showed in post #15 and 16. Do you know what year they started using this type of case?

Regards,

Gordon

Yes, Gordon, this is the same type of boxes. Sorry, I don't know correct year, I think it is from around middle of the 1980's.

[Gordon Craig]

Gents,

While taking some photos today of Red Cross pins to post I noticed something that had escaped me previously. We've posted several cased 10 Blood Donor awards which are all in bronze, although I didn't realize the signifance of the colour at the time. Looking at a 10 Blood Donor medal and a 20 Blood Donor medal it became obvious that the 20 Blood Donor medal was gold doloured rather than bronze. I supposed there mus be a 15 Blood Donor medal in this series that would be silver in colour. I don't remember having sen one before but perhaps that was because I was not looking for one. These awards, although they do not display any Hungarian Communist symbols, are definitley from the HUPR period because of the cases they come in which have been posted earlier in this thread. Here are the two awards side-by-side.

Regards,

Gordon

Edited November 26, 2007 by Gordon Craig