Hungary Merit Medal of Socialist Labor

[hunyadi]

Merit Medal of Socialist Labor

Insituted in 1953 under the 5th Law of 1953, the Merit Medal of Socialist labor had the same criteria and wording as the Order of Labor and the Labor Merit Medal. This was considered to be a replacement for the silver grade of the Order of Labor as instituted in 1950. Like every award instituted in 1953, the follwing year they were all redesigned. This is a 1954 version of the Merit Medal of Socialist Labor and was awarded from 1954 to 1964. This particular form has the 'Rakosi' coat of arm in the center and was only awarded from 1954 to 1956.

[hunyadi]

Reverse of the same medal

[Ulsterman]

interesting attachment device!

So, what sort of person was awarded these?

[hunyadi]

You generally see the safety pin on the civli awards as they normaly did not take the time to sew on a ribbon loop. As with all of the labor awards - they were given out subjectivly on merits and accomplishments. This form was the mid grade of the labor awards from 1953 to 1964. The wording of the Order of Labor, Merit Medal of Socailsit Labor and the Labor Merit Medal were intended to be awarded by the ?Hungarian Peoples Republic to those who in the interest of service to and the furtherance of building socialism by outstanding merit?. Pretty vague...

[Verdun16]

Another one I will have to dug out from the closet to get a scan of the reverse,

Bryan

[hunyadi]

Another one I will have to dug out from the closet to get a scan of the reverse,

Bryan

This is a Distinguished Service Medal - similar form but its got the crossed PPSh's at the bottom - this is a military award...

[Guest Rick Research]

But perhaps not completely off topic as a useful comparison of two remarkably similar awards:

Are the MILITARY Medal's machine guns a separate piece?

COULD a Socialist Labor Medal be fiddled with to mock one up-- or more likely, might a MILITARY medal have its embellishment removed to mock up the civilian version?

The stars and wreaths look identical to me.

I assume that being 1950s-60s, the Labor is better made than late Staybrite type alloy awards?

Would there be any monetary inducement for Bad People to alter one into the other? That's very common with Soviet awards-- retrofitting later ones into mock earlier versions and so on.

I'd hate to pounce on what I thought was a 1953-64 Labor only to find it was a worthless "disarmed" 1980s DSM!

[hunyadi]

The PPSh are a separate piece - from 1953-1957 they were soldered on and could easily come off. They simply used the Merit Medal of Socialist Labor and added the machine pisotls. However - it would not make much sense to fake one of these by removing the PPSh as the military is far more rare. In 1957 they useda different die and incorporated an extra chunk of metal for the PPSh to be affixed by a rivet through. (this is the form that Bryan posted) Then iin 1964 they went to a 3rd design which had a massive bar on the reverse that supported the star, and the PPSh. These are more rare as less than 5000 were awarded from 1964-1989.

Anything pre 1964 has great quality to it - interensting as the 1964 revisions were for the upcoming 20th annaversary of the end of WW2....

As for fakes - there are a few - mostly muddled with items - but still one can spot them pretty easily - I would say you may find one in three hundred to be messed with in some manner - but wait - just wait I am sure more is coming....