Ecuadorian Medals & Militaria

[panzercomander]

I agree on that,, is easely to find ecuadorian and south american medals in Europe ( 7 months ago i found a national merit order on a medals and jewerly store at rome on via del corso - oviously marked with an super non affordable price-) and on last months i found a couple on some european aution sites. All the things i have on my collection now are gifts from some friends that had military members in his family that passed away - and the civil defense medal is a gift of a passive service colonel...

I had veeery little success finding things in South America... in Chile and Peru I found Nothing (Although there was an antique Mal I found in Chile with veeery expansive odds and ends)

Was a little lucky in Colombia... but waaay more South American medals to be found in Europe!

[panzercomander]

As promised

Close ups of the framed awards

First one: Ecuadorian Air Force insignia, hat insignia, qualification pilot wings on bronze silver and gold, two uniform buttons, and two shoulder boards ( i think rank is for a major)

I hope you like it!

[panzercomander]

Second one: Unit identification pins ( if im no wrong the enameled ones are for officers and the black ones non officers) two uniform buttons and two medals, the first one is a civilian conmemorative medal of the fundation of a bank, and the second one is the merit order of the civil defense.

I hope you like it!

[ilja559]

http://wawards.narod.ru/america/ekv/ekv.html

[Paul R]

Was that last display for an American? The insignia surely is, except for the buttons. Did they use US specialty and officer rank insignia?

[panzercomander]

It's probable, i mean that they use similar speciality buttons, and i have to add that the guy that was the owner was a marine officer that was also the importer of the insignia for ecuadorian army produced in a us factory on the 80's... then i after that the ecuadorian army started to fabric it in ecuador.

[Paul R]

I love the medals, but the US insignia is from the US Army, not Marines. Regardless, I want to see more of these medals!

[medalworld]

Following up on the subject of reference books on Ecuadorian medals, one to watch for is "The Medals of Ecuador" by Al Almanzar & Dale Seppa, published by Almanzar's in 1972, now long out of print. It is primarily about historical table medals (non-portable), from 1889 to 1969, but does includes a few medals with suspensions that were meant to be (or could be) worn. 154 items are cataloged within its 56 pages, with 51 medals illustrated. At the end the authors include two 18th century colonial period proclamation medals and three rare 1822-23 award medals for Independence. Orders are not mentioned at all unfortunately. The cover of the book is shown below.

Some years ago I was tempted to collect the Order of Merit stars as they are so attractive and exist in interesting variations by many makers. I've sold a number of beauties over time and now regret not keeping one or two for myself.

Frank Draskovic

[panzercomander]

Frank,

Thanks a lot for the info im going to search for this book!

CM