Austria-Hungary AUSTRIAN WW1 SIGNUM LAUDIS

[Kev in Deva]

Hallo Gentlemen,

I would like to take the oppertunity to post pictures of 2 Austrian medals here.

A Romanian friend has obtained an Austrian SIGNVM LAUDIS with crown and brought it over for comparison, we both see slight differences between our medals:

1. Ribbon ring size: mine is smaller-

2. One has an open crown (his) the other solid, (mine).

3. the detail on his open crown medal are more pronounced than on mine.

4. Diameter of the medal: mine, 30mm. His is 31mm.

5, Width of the crown from side to side: Mine is just on 20mm, his is the same 20mm.

6. From the top of the Cross to the bottom of the medal: Mine 50mm, his is 52mm.

Any comments / facts would be appreciated. I hope its a variation

Photo of the rear will be added on the next post.

Kevin in Deva.

Edited June 26, 2006 by Kev in Deva

[Kev in Deva]

Hallo Gentlemen,

I would like to take the oppertunity to post pictures of 2 Austrian medals here.

A Romanian friend obtained an Austrian SIGNVM LAUDIS with crown and brought it over for comparison, we both see slight differences between our medals:

1. Ribbon ring size: mine is smaller-

2. One has an open crown (his) the other solid, (mine).

3. the detail on his open crown medal are more pronounced than on mine.

4. Diameter of the medal: mine, 30mm. His is 31mm.

5, Width of the crown from side to side: Mine is just on 20mm, his is the same 20mm.

6. From the top of the Cross to the bottom of the medal: Mine 50mm, his is 52mm.

Any comments / facts would be appreciated. I hope its a variation

Photo of the rear will be added on the next post.

Kevin in Deva.

THE REAR:

[Guest Rick Research]

I've never seen a Franz Joseph with a solid crown. I suspect that is a wearing replacement. After the Austro-Hungarian Empire was split up, it may not have been easy for stranded K.u.k. officers in the new countries to replace damaged or lost pieces. ???

[Kev in Deva]

I've never seen a Franz Joseph with a solid crown. I suspect that is a wearing replacement. After the Austro-Hungarian Empire was split up, it may not have been easy for stranded K.u.k. officers in the new countries to replace damaged or lost pieces. ???

Thanks for the reply Rick, this, the medal, came to me via France

Edited June 26, 2006 by Kev in Deva

[Daniel Murphy]

Kevin,

I agree it is a copy. It is just hard to say from when. If it were made in the 20's-30's by a jeweler that originally made them, I would think the detail would be a little better and the dimensions would be the same. It is still possible to be from that period, but it could be from much later.

Dan Murphy

[Stogieman]

I cannot imagine that piece from France is anything but a very bad copy... I've handled about 200 Signum Laudis in Silver & bronze and never seen anything that's even close to that piece...

One could easily confuse it as a "reduktion".... but the quality is not consistent with what I would expect (and have seen) in these "Prinzen" specimans...

[bazsi]

Yes, unfortunately the right one is a late copy. Silver grade has another bad or better quality of copies nowdays.

Regards,

Bazsi

[Elmar Lang]

Hello,

I regret to say that it's a copy dating from these later years, agreeing to what has been said from the other Forum colleagues.

I's a one-piece cast copy, usually coming from Hungary (and there sold as a copy). What happens after the first purchase, is unknown...

It's smaller than the original medal because the mould-wax-cast operations obviously imply a size reduction.

I'm sorry when I have to give bad news...

Enzo