simple 1885 war medal

[Igor Ostapenko]

simple, not rare silver medal

document for medal

I have signed photo of Major Panitza 

[Graf]

More of those medals with Document

 

Graf

[922F]

Happy to see first type medal!!

[paul wood]

Graf and Igor

Nice, the documents are infinitely rarer than the medal.

Paul

[ilieff]

The first type(s) medal is still baffling both collectors and researchers. Nothing is 'for sure' about this particular award.

Edited October 10, 2016 by ilieff

[new world]

Here's one of documents from my collection.

It's similar to what Igor showed in first post, with some differences. It's for silver grade medal.

This type is much rarer than more common type with fancy illustrations from Alexander (shown in post #2 by Graf). I was able to find only one copy of the smaller doc, while I have several large documents.

 

[ilieff]

Hi all,

These are not awarding documents in the classic sense of the word. Look at the dates when these were issued - Igor's document for example is well before the introduction of the first type medal.

Issuing such document is a general practice of the Bulgarian military at that time. Veterans would request a special document to be issued (on behalf of their [former] military unit) which will state where and when they've fought. This document will then be used as a proof of their participation in the war - either for being eligible for decoration with war medals, or e.g. being eligible to get a veterans' pension.

In both cases we have here, the overleaf of the document is used as an improvised awarding document, composed and signed by the regimental officials. Basically, the certificate for participation in the war has been converted into a '2in1' certificate/awarding diploma. This makes each document unique and extremely valuable from collector's point of view.

As far as I know, the larger 'prettier' documents appear slightly later (during the Regency) - initially bearing the name of Prince Alexander I and later - that of Prince Ferdinand I.  

[Igor Ostapenko]

Thank you !!! 

[ruiz]

I have only one. Is a very nice medal.