My Collection of Yugoslav cap badges, 1941-1991

[GC*]

Dear all,

I have been away from the forum for a very long time. I have however recently manage do take some decent photos of my collection and I am happy to share them with you, starting from my beloved Yugoslav section. 

The first photo shows my "Yugoslav box", which contains everything I own relating to the post-War period. All cap badges differ in one respect or another.

The huge problem here is that seen this way, many of those stars look practically the same. Mainly the beautiful M46 stars lose much meaning, deprived of a view of their reverse. Same thing goes for the first cap badge on the left, second row, a beautiful M46 star fixed upon a metal M55 silver base through a unique central hole in the base itself. Finally, IKOM ZAGREB Army and Police cap badges in the second, third and fifth rows are differentiated by the presence of one (early model) or two (later model) small metal protrusions, which are of a different type if compared to AUREA CELIE pieces.

On the right side of the box we find a curious early IKOM aviation badge and the two known IKOM and AUROMETAL models, plus the cloth version of the badge. Then, two airborne troops badges (IKOM and AUROMETAL), Navy, Generals, railway, industrial protection and civil defence.

I practically know the features of each of these pieces by heart and will be happy to provide as much detailed information as I can on each piece.

The war and early post war cap badges shown in the second and third picture don't need much explanations, besides the fact that the cap star on the left side of the third row is a Soviet-made one (a model scarcer that the usual M36 and M39 sent over to the Yugoslav partisans and depicted in many famous pictures of Tito).

[Rogi]

Fantastic collection it was a pleasure viewing them

[GC*]

Dear Rogi, thank you very much for your appreciation! 

In about a month and a half I should be able to add some interesting pieces: two 1944-1946 partisan "egg" cap badges and a post war wreaths-star officers cap badge.

I've always very much liked Yugoslav cap badges. Since I collect cap badges from all Warsaw Pact states (+ SFRY) I've managed to make a few comparative observations. The quality of Yugoslav enamels is perhaps matched only by Rakosi-era Hungarian cap badges. Yet, nothing imho surpasses the simple and clean beauty of the early wreaths-star cap badges, such as the Generals one shown in my second picture.

[paja]

Greetings GC, nice to see you on the forum again.
Very nice collection of cap badges! I just have one question, can you tell us something more about that cloth badge for generals? I don't remember seeing it before.

[GC*]

Thank you very much dear Paja and very nice talking to you again!

Concerning the Generals' cloth badge, the information I have tells me that this belonged to the war uniforms of the Yugoslav Presidency, which after Tito's death became the supreme commander of the JNA. Needless to say, such uniforms were never used.

Edited July 1, 2015 by GC*

[paja]

Thanks, I tried to dig up something about that badge but so far nothing.

Official regulations from 1989 state that members of the Presidency wore same kind of metal badge as officers. I don't know if that was the case before '89.

Translation: Five-pointed star with metal base for cap of active military officers of the ground forces and air force, except generals and for war uniform cap of members of the Presidency of SFRY.

Collar tab and shoulder strap for war uniform of members of the Presidency.

[GC*]

As previously  announced, I've been lucky enough to add some few pieces to my 1944-1948 Yugoslav section and I thought I would be interesting to update this thread.

Here comes M44 partisan "eggs".

I still have some trouble properly cataloguing these. The sources I use in my endeavour are: 

"ОВАЛЬНЫЕ КОКАРДЫ ЮГОСЛАВСКОЙ АРМИИ. 1944–1946 - Бранко БОГДАНОВИЧ, Кирилл ЦЫПЛЕНКОВ" (Oval Cap Badges of the Yugoslav Army, 1944-1946 - Branko Bogdanovich, Kiril Ziplenkov)

"Oruzana sila Komunisticke partije Hrvatske i Komunisticke partije Jugslavije 1941. - 1945. - Tomislav Aralica, Viseslav Aralica" (Armed Forces of the Croatian Communist Party and Yugoslav Communist Party,  1941-1945 - Tomislav Aralica, Viseslav Aralica).

Both sources seem authoritative, but the Russian article, which specifically looks at the production of partisan "egg" cockades in the USSR, relies on rather rigorous archival research and seems more precise in identifying which "eggs" were produced in the USSR and which others in Yugoslavia". According to that article, among my "egg" cockades only the first one on top belongs to those provided by the USSR to Tito's partisans. The Aralicas' book on the contrary would identify also some other "eggs" of mine as Soviet production.

Anybody has knowledge of how to resolve this cataloguing problem?

If it interests the memebers of this discussion, I can happily post scans of both sources .

 

Then come the more easily recognisable M46. I see to have troubles locating a cockade of this sort with the rays structure displayed in my broken one..not to speak of the M46 for Proletarian Units, a true dream!

 

Then, about the Yugoslav Presidency's uniforms, a colleague on another forum provided these interesting photos, which seem to display the epaulettes you posted dear paja as well as a cap adorned with the patch badge I showed earlier. What is your take on these?

[paja]

Greetings,
First of all congrats on new additions to your collection!
To tell you the truth I've seen those presidency uniforms before but I don't remember ever seeing cap. Thanks for photos.
So there are at least two types of cloth badges like those, one with black and other with olive cloth.

PS some time ago fellow collector on one Slovenian forum posted these photos. Everyone suspected this badge to be a fake so watch out!

 

[Tim B]

Hi GC,

I don't think I've ever posted any of my Yugoslav items here and honestly don't have much to show off.  I will just post what I have and hopefully everything will be good!

First up is a couple of 3rd Class Partisan Stars:

Yugoslavian Order of the Partisan Star 3rd Class Mondvor #8975

 

 

Yugoslavian Order of the Partisan Star 3rd Class Ikom #27463

Only have a couple of hat badges and am not sure what exact service they go to.  The quality of construction is not the greatest so I questioned them but paid very little for both if not authentic.

Tim

[paja]

Greetings Tim, 
I don't see anything wrong with both of your hat badges. First one with "silver rays" was worn by Ground Forces, other one with "golden rays" by Militia (Police). They are larger hat badges for šapka (shapka - peaked cap).

[Tim B]

Hello paja,

Thank you for that, I do seem to remember when buying these that the gold one was supposedly a police version but its been sometime now since looking at them.

Thanks for not beating me showing my partisan stars even though they are not "hat" badges.  Just so few opportunities to show/discuss anything Yugoslav.

 

Best,

Tim

[GC*]

Greetings,
First of all congrats on new additions to your collection!
To tell you the truth I've seen those presidency uniforms before but I don't remember ever seeing cap. Thanks for photos.
So there are at least two types of cloth badges like those, one with black and other with olive cloth.

PS some time ago fellow collector on one Slovenian forum posted these photos. Everyone suspected this badge to be a fake so watch out!

Thank you very much!

I've read that post too and have attentively followed the discussion. I myself am absolutely convinced that the cap badges you posted is a modern replica. It is a remarkably well-made one, but several macroscopic differences would alert any expert of Yugoslav partisan cap badges. I've seen at least two different ones going unsold on ebay for quite a price..

[paja]

You're welcome.
Did I understand well that those 2 from ebay were also fakes? If so could you perhaps post images of them, I'm really interested to see how they look like.

[GC*]

Here they come!

First of all, the original picture coming from that sister forum, which clearly shows the macroscopic difference between an original cap badge and the fake one.

 

 

Now the photos of the two cockades put on sale on ebay some months ago..

 

 

Paja, what is your take on these?

The one on red cloth seems to have a more convincing enamel, but still conforms to no proved original..and looks anyway almost identical to the cap badge in the first comparative photo, which we could imho safely assume is a fake.

 

[Tim B]

Not really studying these per se but it appears the originals have that same sunburst pattern under the enamel, similar to those cap badges I shown in post #9, where the "fake" example/s do not.  The enamel looks unevenly applied on those in question as well.  Is that correct?

Still, the material appears more robust than the Russian stuff of the '80s and '90s.

Tim

[paja]

There is a sunburst type but there are badges with the same "pattern" underneath the enamel as on typical NCO/soldier type.
When you look at the one everyone thinks is fake the pattern is completely "flat". First one GC posted, on blue cloth, also seems to be that way. I myself am far from expert on this matter so I can't say anything for sure especially when it comes to the one on red cloth... I saw couple of very similar badges before, at that time I thought they are original.

Edited August 24, 2015 by paja

[GC*]

I entirely agree with Tim that if any of the three cap badges I posted as dubious/fake is indeed fake (and imho at least the first and the one on blue cloth are [I fully agree with you Paja]), then we are facing a quality that is unknown to most attempts at producing fake Soviet cap badges (in fact a rather high quality production of fake Soviet M1922 and M1936 stars has started and quickly reached a frightening good quality, but so far these are sold as replicas and not passed off as original Civil War or WWII).

I have been observing these a lot and at first I thought that only the badge on red cloth featured a bas relief-like star construction underneath the enamel, but in fact all three stars seem to have rays that from the point of the stars arrows converge to the centre.

The main issues with these cap badges for me remain:

1) the number and structure of leaves in the lower part of the badge. 

2) the shape of the star itself (too asymmetrical)

I say so after having observed all cap badges listed as original in the two publications I quoted in one of my previous posts. Here come once again the titles:

1) "ОВАЛЬНЫЕ КОКАРДЫ ЮГОСЛАВСКОЙ АРМИИ. 1944–1946 - Бранко БОГДАНОВИЧ, Кирилл ЦЫПЛЕНКОВ" (Oval Cap Badges of the Yugoslav Army, 1944-1946 - Branko Bogdanovich, Kiril Ziplenkov) 

2) "Oruzana sila Komunisticke partije Hrvatske i Komunisticke partije Jugslavije 1941. - 1945. - Tomislav Aralica, Viseslav Aralica" (Armed Forces of the Croatian Communist Party and Yugoslav Communist Party,  1941-1945 - Tomislav Aralica, Viseslav Aralica).

As you'll notice, there is no agreement between the two sources about which partisan "egg" cockades were produced in the USSR and which in Yugoslavia. The Russian source lists fewer model, while the Yugoslav source more..

Both sources seem authoritative to me, but the Russian article, which specifically looks at the production of partisan "egg" cockades in the USSR, relies on rather rigorous archival research and seems more precise in identifying which "eggs" were produced in the USSR and which others in Yugoslavia.

Here some scans. Would love to hear your opinion on this issue.

 

[Tim B]

Slightly off topic but wasn't it a couple years ago someone back (eastern Europe) started faking the Albanian Star badges as well?  I seem to remember those were getting rather good in enamel work too.

There is a Soviet Awards Forum that also discusses other communist related items.  If you are not already aware of it, it might be of interest: http://soviet-awards.com/forum/

Tim