Yugoslavia Hat badge or collar badge, opinions please

[Brian Wolfe]

Hello Everyone,

As well as the blue enameled badge I posted earlier I also picked up a tiny "hat badge" (also marked "RARE" , this guy kills me). It seems too small for a hat badge, measuring 1 inch (25mm). For its size it seems to be fairly heavy though I doubt it is anything expensive like silver. There is a very small chip above the sickle but other than that the enamel is in good condition.

The screw device has IKOM and ZAGREB written on it.

Oh yes, the cost of this "RARE" badge was $5.00. It makes me wonder what he would have charged for something he would consider as common?

My questions are, is this a hat badge or a collar badge and is it an older style badge?

Any help you can give me is, as always, appreciated.

Cheers

Brian

[Brian Wolfe]

Here is the reverse side showing the screw device.

Thanks again for your help.

Cheers

Brian

[Guest Rick Research]

Well, it's Yugoslav, so I'll move it over there.

[Brian Wolfe]

Well, it's Yugoslav, so I'll move it over there.

Many thanks Rick, I have a lot to learn.

Cheers

Brian

[Brian Wolfe]

Hello Everyone,

I like to do as much research as possible before asking for help from my fellow forum members as I believe that is what the internet and this forum in particular are for. I had searched through several Soviet badge sources regarding the hat badge I was asking about before posting it here. Thanks to Rick moving it to this thread I started to look for it and low and behold I found it.

I was looking under the wrong thread! Oh well that all part of learning.

Thanks again for the information and the nudge in the right direction, Rick.

You know what they say about teaching a man to fish for himself.

Cheers

Brian

[SasaYU]

It is a cap badge for elite troops of JNA (Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija / Yugoslav People's Army).

[Brian Wolfe]

It is a cap badge for elite troops of JNA (Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija / Yugoslav People's Army).

Many thanks for the information,SasaYU.

Cheers

Brian

[SasaYU]

You are welcome.

[Eric Gaumann]

It's kinda rare....the Yugo Army weren't that big..... Plus, they don't make 'em like that any more. Plus, they gotta be hard to find in the GWN (Great White North). They don't command a big price tag; $5 is an average price, and you didn't have to pay 5 to 10 for shipping so you're ahead there.

IMHO these 'Elite Troops' badges, and the normal ones (w/o S&H) make great additions to Yugo ODM displays. They're nice and heavy, not thin, stamped metal like their Soviet bretheren.

[Brian Wolfe]

It's kinda rare....the Yugo Army weren't that big..... Plus, they don't make 'em like that any more. Plus, they gotta be hard to find in the GWN (Great White North). They don't command a big price tag; $5 is an average price, and you didn't have to pay 5 to 10 for shipping so you're ahead there.

IMHO these 'Elite Troops' badges, and the normal ones (w/o S&H) make great additions to Yugo ODM displays. They're nice and heavy, not thin, stamped metal like their Soviet bretheren.

Thanks Eric,

Actually this caught my wife's eye while I was looking at an Austrian medal. I'm glad she noticed it and since the price was right I'm glad I bought it. Now I'll have to add some JNA medals and start yet another thread to my collection, so in the long run it will probably cost me enough.

Cheers

Brian

[SasaYU]

Keep on going Brian !

[leigh kitchen]

I was given one by my old landlord when I lived in Srpska for a short while about 8 years ago, it had been his when he was in the army He was in his 60's then, unfortunately I do'nt know what unit he was in, just that it was a "Guards" unit.

[101combatvet]

I have several of them.... I wonder when they stopped using them?

[seb16trs]

It is a cap badge for elite troops of JNA (Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija / Yugoslav People's Army).

hello, could these units be compared to the soviet guards unit? (I believe there's a yougoslav guards badge isn't it?)

[SasaYU]

Some pictures of Yugoslav people's army Guard unit:

In camo uniforms, training:

[Valter]

Very nice pictures, Sa?a!

However, I must make a small correction: this cap badge (for field cap, not peaked one) is NOT for guards units (gardijske jedinice), but for so-called "proletarian" troops (proleterske jedinice). They were (almost) the same as normal yugoslav army troops, except they were bearing the tradition of elite/better partisan units, that have gotten honorary title "proletarian" during WW2. They were believed to be somehow better than "regular" (non-proletarian) units, but in reality that was dubious, at least in last years/decades of Yugoslavia. The only distinction in uniform was that hammer and sickle in the star.

[SasaYU]

Valter,

as you said, this cap badge was for "field cap", whic was also worn by guard units while training.

Here is a picture of guard units training in 1974.

Picture is from a book written by Petar Damjanov and Miroslav Mladenovic:

More pictures:

[SasaYU]

Valter,

as you said, this cap badge was for "field cap", which was also worn by guard units while training.

Here is a picture of guard units training in 1974.

Picture is from a book written by Petar Damjanov and Miroslav Mladenovic:

More pictures:

Edited March 19, 2009 by SasaYU