Order of the Rising Sun 2nd Class, Cased

[TracA]

Greetings,

 

About a year and a half ago I posted about an Order of the Rising Sun 2nd Class set that I own. That set was an early neck badge with a breast star that had been altered by having the tines removed and replaced with a central screw and nut plate for fastening, in a case that had an incorrect medal bed (the medalbed for the breast star was actually for a 3rd Class neck badge) and was probably not original to the set. As happy as I am with that set, I've always wanted a more traditional set without an altered breast star and in a correct case. I was finally able to obtain one.

 

The set below has some very minor damage to the white and green enamel on the obverse and reverse of the neck badge, but other than that it is in excellent condition. To my delight my suspicion after looking closely at the seller’s photo of the breast star reverse was confirmed once I had the set in hand: the breast star does indeed have the M mint mark on the 6h reverse ray between the bottom of the ray and the catch for the central tine. The neck badge? That has an M mint mark too, on the left side edge of the suspension when one is looking at the obverse of the badge. A matched set, so to speak. The set came with the rosette (no marks on that) and the beautifully lacquered case has gold kanji.

 

Using the Medals of Asia website for information about the M mint mark and silver vs. gold kanji allows me to say this about dating this 2nd Class set: the neck badge and breast star are between March of 1930 and April of 1943, and the gold kanji puts the case up to sometime in 1940 at the latest, assuming that the set was indeed issued in the case and thereby using the M mint mark time coordinates to derive a terminus ante quem for the case. If the set was indeed issued in the case, then I would put the date between March of 1930 and sometime into 1940 at the latest.

 

A note on hallmarks: Never once have I seen a seller mention in a write-up the presence of any hallmarks on any Japanese order or medal for sale, even when such hallmarks can be vaguely or even clearly seen in one of the sellers’ photos. I think that this is a lost opportunity for sellers, as I for one am always on the lookout for orders and medals with hallmarks. 

 

I hope that you enjoy this set. Some of the photos are, unfortunately, poorly lit.

 

All the best,

 

Tracy

 

Obverse of the neck badge:

 

 

Close-up of the neck badge:

 

 

Reverse of the neck badge:

 

 

Close-up of the neck badge reverse:

 

 

M mint mark on the edge of the neck badge suspension:

 

 

Breast star obverse:

 

 

Breast star reverse, with the M mint mark barely visible:

 

 

Breast star M mint mark:

 

 

Rosette:

 

 

Finally, the case lid:

 

Edited February 7 by TracA
Word Correction

[No one]

Dear TracA,

 

This Rising Sun 2nd Class set is beautiful, especially with the hallmark.

 

Yours sincerely,

No one

 

 

[TracA]

No One,

 

Thank you very much. I am quite pleased with the set and glad that I was able to obtain it.

 

Take care,

 

Tracy

[Gordon Craig]

TracA,

Verry nicely marked set and well photographed.  Thank you for your presentation.

Regards,

Gordon

 

[azyeoman]

A very beautiful set. Congratulations! 

[TracA]

Gordon and Azyeoman,

 

Thank you both for your kind words.

 

Tracy

[JapanX]

Rare set that was issued somewhere around 1936-1940.

[TracA]

Thank you, NIck, as always for the fine tuned time coordinates. I will add that to my documentation.

 

All the best,

 

Tracy

[JapanX]

On 07/02/2024 at 04:56, TracA said:

Using the Medals of Asia website for information about the M mint mark and silver vs. gold kanji allows me to say this about dating this 2nd Class set: the neck badge and breast star are between March of 1930 and April of 1943, and the gold kanji puts the case up to sometime in 1940 at the latest, assuming that the set was indeed issued in the case and thereby using the M mint mark time coordinates to derive a terminus ante quem for the case. If the set was indeed issued in the case, then I would put the date between March of 1930 and sometime into 1940 at the latest.

 

 

Sorry, missed this paragraph. As mentioned earlier breast star and neck badge belong to /approximately/ 1936-1940 time.

As for the case, neck ribbon and miniature rosette - all three belong to the 1960+ time period. Most likely previous owner (or dealer) decided to "freshen up" this set.

 

The correct case for such set should look like this 

 

 

After 1937/1938 silver inscription (with golden paulownia) is possible. 

 

 

Best,

Nick

[TracA]

Nick,

 

Thank you for the clarification/further information. I will add it to my documentation.

 

I am not very good, at all, at recognizing when cases and/or ribbons are temporally mismatched from their orders or decorations. That is something that I really need to work on.

 

All the best,

 

Tracy