Yugoslavia Cufflinks

[BalkanCollector]

Anyone else collecting Yugoslavian cufflinks? I don't see them very often for sale with a reasonable price. 

Here are mine technical service cufflinks.

Edited July 23, 2017 by BalkanCollector

[paja]

Congrats on your newest addition  
Do you perhaps know did every branch and service have its own cufflinks? 

[BalkanCollector]

Thank you Paja! 

I've seen some branches of service on ebay so I'm guessing every branch had those. I've even seen some military schools had their own cufflinks. Certainly an interesting part of militaria for collecting.

[paja]

I must admit I never really payed that much attention to cufflinks but it certainly is an interesting field for collecting. So far I mostly came across Air Force, Navy and JNA, I think branches and services are rarer.

[BalkanCollector]

Yes. So far I've seen most of the regular Air Force, Navy and Army cufflinks. As for the branches of service, the only ones I've seen online were pharmacy, supply, parachutist, law, avio-technician and nuclear biologist-chemist if my notes are correct.

[paja]

It's unusual that most of them have green background while Navy & Navy Technical Service have dark blue and Air Force & Air Force Technical Service light blue - the same as with the military education badges. I've seen some JNA ones with red background and some just golden, I bet infantry must be red... Was that nuclear biologist-chemist you saw on green background?
I checked the adds and auction and apart from the ones you already mentioned I stumbled upon Artillery (I'm not sure but looks like black background!), Veterinarian and Navy Technical Service, there must be more...

[BalkanCollector]

Yes, biologist-chemist had green background. I haven't seen any with red background yet. 

The Artillery pieces that you saw could be black because Kingdom of Yugoslavia and early Socialist Yugoslavi ranks had black color for artillery so that may be an early piece.

[paja]

To be honest I'm not even sure that it's black, image is very small and I can't find another one like that. Perhaps it just looks black on that photo. 
So basically all cufflinks are green except for those four (Navy, Navy Technical Service, Air Force, Air Force Technical Service) and JNA ones.

Edited July 24, 2017 by paja

[BalkanCollector]

From this point of view it really looks like it's black but it's probably dark green like other branches. I guess the JNA pieces are for gala uniforms and special occasions and dark green for Army, dark blue for Navy and light blue for Air Force are for every day work. 

[paja]

We have to check the regulations but I don't remember bumping upon cufflinks in the rules. 
Here's what's puzzling me, to my understanding cufflinks are to be worn on "French cuffs" but I think shirts used by the military personal have "barrel cuffs". Are they maybe for "civilian" use or am I missing something?

[BalkanCollector]

I haven't really thought about this to be honest. Now I'm wondering the same thing. I will try to do some research on this matter and hopefully find some answers and post them here.

[BalkanCollector]

Mystery solved! Talked to my grandpa and he said that they wore them on two buttons barrel cuff sleeves, so the regular, every day shirts. He told me that there were no specific regulations and that they didn't have to wear them every day. He wore them whenever he wanted. He said that there was a problem with cufflinks when they were at work because they would often bump into a table and get stuck on its edge, so most of the guys didn't wear them regularly. He told me a story of one officer who had ripped his shirt sleeve because of cufflinks.

[paja]

Thank you both for the explanation 

[BalkanCollector]

Cheers!