Order of Yugoslavian Flag.

[Georg14]

Good day, Gentlemen.  From different sources:  there were total 769 awards of 5 cl.  But the last numbered(ZIN) one wnich I saw was 7xx,  also there is a lot of unnumbered orders (IKOM). How is it possible, how many awards really were ?   Maybe "769" is only made by ZIN, but then again, how many total (5 cl.) awards it were?  So, there is authentic info?  Any ideas ? or I do not understand something ?  Thanks.

[paja]

Greetings Georg,

That number is from the book "Decorations of SFRY" by Stojan Rudež from 1987. Mr. Rudež was the head of the Chancery of the Orders in the '80s (I think from 1982 'till 1984).
The author gives us the number of orders awarded until the end of 1985, so the total number should be a bit higher. 

I've also seen 5th class orders with numbers close to 800, (the highest one so far - 78X), for one of the rarest orders it appears too often on the market. I believe the numbering started from 1 because I've seen order with one figure number. 

Bunch of 4th and 5th classes are available on ebay, for example, at all times, I think there are around 15 of them right now. I've also seen sellers with literally dozens of those lower classes. The first class is also appearing too often considering the number of awards, let's round it to 1500 (1421 + unknown number from 1986 until 1992).

Considering that they do not look suspicious in any way, at least not to me, I think the most of them were not awarded. I know that many collectors are very skeptical about "the warehouse find" stories but I can't think of any other explanation.

PS for some reason many online sources, including sammler, replaced the number of awards for 2nd and 3rd class. Rudež wrote that 1443 2nd classes and 1300 3rd classes were awarded until the end of 1985, not the other way around.

[Georg14]

As I undertand it is uknown how many total rewardings it were? On sales there are unreal much lots for sale, so it is very strange...  

 

[paja]

Yes, the total number is unknown unless they weren't awarding that order after 1986. And that's just one part of the problem, the other one is the fact that even the numbers given for the period before 1986 are not complete. Considering that the Yugoslav Flag was introduced after the war and the number of recipients is not that big actual numbers shouldn't be too different from the ones given by Rudež.

I believe that there are so many of them on the market because someone found a huge stash. Like I said we often hear stories like that and collectors are skeptical but I think that's the case here. When you look at the offer in huge amount of cases you get just the decoration, rarely can you see order inside box and I don't remember seeing a complete set with document! But when I think about it I don't think I ever saw a document for the 4th and 5th class of Yugo Flag ...

[Georg14]

So, it means that it was given out far less orders than manufactured, and unfortunately without a document it is impossible to know the order was given out or not. But this confirms my guesses too…