Kingdom of Bulgaria: National Order for Military Merit

[Megan]

From the Kingdom of Bulgaria, the National Order for Military Merit(Орден За военна заслуга). This was instituted on 18 May 1900 - but intended as a military branch of the existing National Order of Civil Merit hence its reverse bears the institution date of that order, 2 August 1891! Over time a range of variations were brought in, but for tonight, the Grand Cross Star and the Class 2 (or Grand Officer) badge and star of the first type. The sharp-eyed amonst you may wonder why I'm not calling the Grand Cross "Class 1" when I'm using Class 2 for the Grand Officer... there is madness in my method. You see, they added an extra class, the Grand Cross, above the original Class 1, which got renamed as the Great Cross and looked like a Grand Cross to anyone not looking closely. The new Grand Cross class has a sash and badge virtually identical to the Class 1, but its star had the additional gold pieces you can see here.

 

The badge for the Grand Officer is an Urdy cross enamelled crimson with a circular centre and crossed swords between the arms of the cross. On the obverse, the centre is enamelled crimson and bears the cypher of the founder, Ferdinand I, in white, surrounded by a green ring which bears the inscription ЗА ВОЕННА ЗАСЛУГА [FOR MILITARY MERIT]. The reverse has a crimson centre on which there is a gold lion rampant with a Saxon shield on its chest, surrounded by a green ring inscribed 2 АВГУСТЪ 1891 [2 AUGUST 1891].The star is silver, a rayed star of four points bearing the obverse of the badge described above.

[Graf]

First  and Second Class with War Decoration

[Graf]

his is the Grand Cross Star Regency Emission

The Grand Cross was introduced in 1918 when King Boris II ascended to the throne after the abdication of his father -King Ferdinand The Star has those diamond cut features  The Cross remained the same with plane arms

 

[Megan]

Lovely stuff, Graf - hoping to find images of these in due course.

[Graf]

3 hours ago, Megan said:

Lovely stuff, Graf - hoping to find images of these in due course.

You can see on the middle the King Boris III period First Class The cross is smaller then the earlier emissions

only the First Class Cross  Boris III emission

[Graf]

More pictures of Grand Cross and the 1st Class  Boris III emission

[Graf]

This is the rarest Order for Military Merit 1937 Model with special flat reverse medallion Only handful of crosses are known and no higher then the 5th Class