China Help identifying Communist Chinese medals (and the Nationalist ones too if you can)

[Gordon Craig]

Gents,

I just won these medals in an auction. The North Korean one in the lower left hand corner I recognize but the rest are all a mistery to me. If you can identify them, and post a picture with the correct suspension piece, I would be very greatfull. An idea of value would also help. I am not asking this for resale purposes. Just so I know the value of what I bought. The lot averages out to about 10 euros each.

Regards,

Gordon

Edited September 11, 2008 by Gordon Craig

[Lapa]

Gents,

I just won these medals in an auction. The North Korean one in the lower left hand corner I recognize but the rest are all a mistery to me. If you can identify them, and post a picture with the correct suspension piece, I would be very greatfull. An idea of value would also help. I am not asking this for resale purposes. Just so I know the value of what I bought. The lot averages out to about 10 euros each.

Regards,

Gordon

Gordon,

The one on the right is a fake of the Artillery Academy medal; the original has real beautiful glass enamels.

The 3 square suspensions are also current fakes; I do not know about the medals hanging from them though.

Marc

[Ed_Haynes]

There is probably no field as plagued by fantasies and outright (shamelss) fakes as Chinese medals. Part of the problem is the lack of any good reference books (even those in Chinese are incomplete).

Setting aside the North Koread order, I doubt anything here is any good. Sorry.

[Gordon Craig]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the quick responses. Since the medals have not been shipped yet I asked the auction house not to send them to me. That is two auctions now where I have bought bad items from these guys. I guess I will have to cross them off my list of dealers.

Regards,

Gordon

[Ed_Haynes]

I have found only two even remotely useful sources on PRC awards, both in Chinese.

Illustrated Collection of Badges in the Chinese People's Revolutionary Military Museum ([beijing: 1980]; ISBN 7-80603-104-9)

One of the two standard books, this one has become scarce in recent years, though some of the better Soviet medal dealers occasionally stock it. The book is entirely in Chinese, but is usually sold in the USA accompanied by a Xeroxed set of translations of the photo captions. While the translations are less than elegant, they are a great aid to the mostly-non-Chinese-speaking phaleristic world.

Hard to find these days.

[Ed_Haynes]

And (easier to find, famous NJ dealer stocks it).

Zhong Guo Hui Zhang ([n.p.: 2000]; ISBN 7-5306-3106-3)

Bibliographically elusive, this small volume shares many of the problems of the CPRMM volume (above): it is entirely in Chinese with only Xeroxed captions included from most sellers. It does, however, seem to be more comprehensive and it does give text (in Chinese) beyond a simple caption on each of the awards. If more of us could read this text! This book is also easier to obtain, as it is fairly regularly stocked by the better Soviet award dealers.

[Guest Rick Research]

Those grotesque rectangular suspensions and plastic shower curtain "ribbons" are used universally on all the rubbish out there-- for BOTH sides' awards.

They are in mock of:

So you can see how badly misproportioned the fakes are compared to an original above. This is one of the most common real awards yet it too is faked massively with casts that have no real enamel.

The fore and aft suspenssion ring rivet though pentagonal ribbons is typical of current PRC awards.

These... things.. are everywhere by what must be the hundreds of thousands. WHY is another matter, since there is virtually no collecting market. If there HAD been, it would have been-- as it has been--completely destroyed by the tidal wave of junk.

The only real PRC awards I have found have come from the former Soviet Union, the flotsam and jetsam of their "secret" advisors there in the 1940s-50s.

If I had to offer advice on collecting PRC awards from the Civil and Korean Wars period I would have to say:

don't bother.

[Anatoly13]

In China it is possible to buy at the price of 1 bucket - 50 USD.

For especially greedy collectors! :D

Edited September 11, 2008 by Anatoly13

[Kev in Deva]

:rolleyes: "Red, Red, Ribbon all of de time make me wanna whine"

Sincere apologies to UB 40.

But look on the bright side, Christmas tree decorations

I just wonder how many tons of this stuff is heading world wide post Olympicoitus

Kevin in Deva :beer:

[seb16trs]

I have found only two even remotely useful sources on PRC awards, both in Chinese.

Illustrated Collection of Badges in the Chinese People's Revolutionary Military Museum ([beijing: 1980]; ISBN 7-80603-104-9)

One of the two standard books, this one has become scarce in recent years, though some of the better Soviet medal dealers occasionally stock it. The book is entirely in Chinese, but is usually sold in the USA accompanied by a Xeroxed set of translations of the photo captions. While the translations are less than elegant, they are a great aid to the mostly-non-Chinese-speaking phaleristic world.

Hard to find these days.

please try at Andr? Husken's Gallerie d'histoire (Hamburg, Germany); he has an electronic library.

[chinamedals]

In the above two books has counterfeit goods including, please note, please do not want the complete trust book, because they are not the specialized collectors

[DavidMacca]

I know the top left because it was awarded to my father (we are Australians) my father was involved in mission 204 which was a joint mission with the British in 1042 they travelled through Burma as it was know then and into China a mission to train the Chinese in warfare against the Japanese.