Yugoslavia incorrect ribbon

[bilylev]

Hello friends,

I have this interesting medal, unfortunately with a wrong ribbon. Can somebody help me to obtain a correct one?

Jan

[bilylev]

And reverse.

[paul wood]

A lovely and rare medal for Tito's visit to India and Burma 1954-55, I am extremely jealous. Have you thought of contacting the OMSA ribbon bank it is possible that they may have some ribbon. If not very difficult.

Paul

[paja]

Greetings Jan and thanks for photos!

http://www.ribbonsshop.com/ sells a lot of Yugoslav replacement ribbons and sashes, unfortunately not that many for decorations from the socialist era. Maybe you could try contacting them and see if ribbon like that will be available in the future.

PS Just a friendly warning to all of the forum members, there are claims that there are very good fakes of this medal among others. I do not own a piece of my own so I can't say more on this matter or maybe show you some images, but what's indicative to me is that, considering how many of them were actually awarded, they show up too often.

Edited December 18, 2013 by paja

[paul wood]

Thanks for the warning Radmilo, while not my collecting field generally, given my interest is India it's a medal I would love to own but would need good images of an undoubtedly genuine one before considering buying one as they are not cheap.

Paul

[paja]

Don't mention it Paul, I'll see if I can find some good images of the original medals and forward them to you.

Now that we are talking about fakes, also watch out for the Medal for Yugoslav Fighters in Spain (1936-1956), Medal for Merits and Order of the Partisan Star (last two are heavily faked).

I apologize for going off topic but this looked like a good opportunity to mention it.

Edited December 18, 2013 by paja

[bilylev]

Thanks for infos. I was in contact with both sources, but unfortunaly it seems this medal was awarded in a small amount and producers are not interested. Has somebody knowledge how many was produced/awarded? I would appreciate, if you could give here some good pictures of originals. I have this medal more than 20 years, but who knows. The world is full of bastards, who forge the medals .

[paja]

Bilylev you are welcome.

I am not certain about the exact number but 1200 is mentioned on couple of places.

These fakes that I have mentioned are more recent, to be honest I do not know were they faking this particular medal that long ago...

If I find some good images of the original medal I will forward them to you as well.

[paja]

By the way it is strange that ribbonsshop doesn't have ribbon for India and Burma medal but offers for example ribbon for Yugoslav Spain Fighters medal which, according to some sources, should be even more rare...

Edited December 20, 2013 by paja

[Rogi]

The ribbon is incorrect I'm 99% sure.

The actual ribbon should be Christmas color, ie Green then white stripe then red and repeating.

I will check another couple sources, it is what it is if it is incorrect ribbon You can't really do much about it now. Although I would recommend keeping it in this condition.

The main issue with it is that we don't know a lot about the medal itself and only around 1,200 were produced as Paja indicated.

It could be a trail piece or "prototype" so I wouldn't touch it just yet

Do you see any hallmarks on it?

[paja]

I have came across various numbers from 250-300, 500 to 1200. To be honest when I think about it 1200 sounds like a too big number considering the fact that it was awarded to individuals who accompanied Tito during this trip. I have read somewhere that there were around 500 of them. So that could be the actual number of awarded medals. In any case one of the rarest Yugoslav medals.

Edited December 18, 2013 by paja

[Rogi]

I have came across various numbers from 250-300, 500 to 1200. To be honest when I think about it 1200 sounds like a too big number considering the fact that it was awarded to individuals who accompanied Tito during this trip. I have read somewhere that there were around 500 of them. so that could be the actual number of awarded medals. In any case one of the rarest Yugoslav medals.

I've heard that there were support staff and individuals in the Indian and Burman side of Gov. that received the medals as well, In terms of our own citizens that attained it, probably 500 is better term but in total I know that a couple sources state that there were 800+ awarded in total.

[paja]

I didn't know that, thanks for info If the medals were awarded to Indian and Burman citizens as well then that 1200 doesn't sound that big anymore

Edited December 18, 2013 by paja

[Rogi]

I didn't know that, thanks for info If the medals were awarded to Indian and Burman citizens as well then that 1200 doesn't sound that big anymore

Still agree with you, totally rare either way you look at it

[bilylev]

Thanks for infos. How was this trip organised? By ship? Because, if some 500 persons accompanied Tito on the trip, it would need several planes to transport them.

Jan

[922F]

Tito preferred surface travel--ship, rail, and automobiles. He traveled on this 1954-55 trip aboard what was in fact his yacht Galeb [seagull] aka The Peace ship--not to be confused with the more recent Japanese Peace Ship organization or their ship. Yugoslav naval support vessels accompanied Galeb for varying portions of the voyage--not clear whether personnel aboard those ships, Yugoslav diplomatic/consular staff assigned to host nations, and host country nationals received the visit medal.

Galeb is described on several websites. Tito had best quality Yugoslav items aboard and quite successfully showcased them on his foreign travels. Over 100 heads-of-state visited Galeb in the course of her official voyages.

Some ex-Galeb personnel served on Yugoslav passenger ships, including Dalmatia and Istra, after Tito's death. These individuals wore their service ribbons or miniatures at gala shipboard events, including the India/Burma visit medal.

Edited December 19, 2013 by 922F

[Rogi]

Tito preferred surface travel--ship, rail, and automobiles. He traveled on this 1954-55 trip aboard what was in fact his yacht Galeb [seagull] aka The Peace ship--not to be confused with the more recent Japanese Peace Ship organization or their ship. Yugoslav naval support vessels accompanied Galeb for varying portions of the voyage--not clear whether personnel aboard those ships, Yugoslav diplomatic/consular staff assigned to host nations, and host country nationals received the visit medal.

Galeb is described on several websites. Tito had best quality Yugoslav items aboard and quite successfully showcased them on his foreign travels. Over 100 heads-of-state visited Galeb in the course of her official voyages.

Some ex-Galeb personnel served on Yugoslav passenger ships, including Dalmatia and Istra, after Tito's death. These individuals wore their service ribbons or miniatures at gala shipboard events, including the India/Burma visit medal.

Aye so maybe 800 to 1200 seems ok number?

It is by far one of our rarest medals

[bilylev]

No hallmark on it .

[paja]

Wiki link with some interesting information and couple of pictures showing how the ship looked in 2008 (I hope that something's been done since then):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galeb_(yacht)

[Rogi]

Galeb is still waiting since April of 2013,

Here is another link:

http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=1781091

I hope they don't wait too long :S

The "Ship of Peace" needs to be restored Asap

Edited December 20, 2013 by Rogi

[paul wood]

There are rumours that it will become a charter super yacht. If so I think we should hire it to take it to Chris's imaginary island.

Paul

[bilylev]

An interesting history. When she is rebuild into a museum, certainly a lot of tourists would be attracted.

[paja]

Museum sounds like a very nice idea, but on the other hand as much as I would hate seeing it become someone's super yacht anything's better than just letting it rot.

[Rogi]

Museum sounds like a very nice idea, but on the other hand as much as I would hate seeing it become someone's super yacht anything's better than just letting it rot.

+1

Museums take a lot of time, unless you have a lot of money, not sure if the city does have coffers full of money for a restoration but it would be nice to see something happen at least.

Becoming a Super Yacht beats, being beached and becoming a diving attraction for coral reefs to grow on.

[SasaYU]

Correct ribbon for your medal would be(both sides)