Hungary Labor Merit Medal 1953 to 1964

[hunyadi]

Though these have been discussed elsewhere - I thought it would be good to start a thread on some of the other labor awards:

Labor Merit Medal

In replacing the lineage of the 1950 Order of Labor the Labor Merit Medal was intended to be third in the trilogy of the new Order of Labor as instituted in 1953. Interestingly enough in the proclamation of the 5th law of 1953, the wording for the Labor Merit Medal was the same as the Merit Medal of Socialist Labor and the Order of Labor. As such it was intended to be the lowest form and in essence to replace the Order of Labor in bronze from 1950. With all of the awards created in 1953 under the 5th law, they all underwent a design change for 1954. This particular form was awarded between 1954 and 1964, though this example would have been issued from 1957 to 1964 as it has a mini on the ribbon.

Edited March 31, 2008 by hunyadi

[hunyadi]

reverse of the same award. Note that the wreath was originaly done in silver plate - but it has mainly worn off of the front section.

[Ulsterman]

sweet!!

What sort of things did one have to do so as to be awarded this medal?

[hunyadi]

somethign that would have normaly resulted in someone being awarded the bronze grade of the Order of Labor...this was the lowest of the labor awards in 1953. Notice the three stripes on the ribbon for '3rd class' (Merit Medal of Socialist Labor has two close together) But - what constituted being awarded the Bronze Order of Labor in 1964 or the Labor Merit Medal from 1953 to 1964 was purely subective. Do a good job, be a good Party member etc...

Here is the breakdown of the award numbers according to the Blue Bible (the numbers are not exact to the Large Medals Book)

1953 858 (first form of the medal only)

1954 1706

1955 3584 (10th annaversary of the end of WW2)

1956 1802

1957 493 (1956 revolution didnt make folks happy to hand out medals)

1958 1404

1959 921

1960 1763

1961 1164

1962 1167

1963 1179

Total 16041 (about 1400 per year)

[Gordon Craig]

Good thread to start Charles. Not much I can add being far way from home except that the Blue Bible, at least the copies that we have, was written and printed almost 20 years before the NMK so there is bound to be a difference in the number of medals awarded. Later research work and more open archives may also have assisted the writers of the NMK as well.

Regards,

Gordon

[Verdun16]

I will have to dig this one out later as I don't have a scan of the reverse,

Bryan

[Verdun16]

The same with this piece,

Bryan

Edited April 2, 2008 by Verdun16

[Stogieman]

An additional example: