The Best Looking Medal/Order

Order of the Republic. It came in 3 classes. 3rd-bronze, 2nd-silver and 1st-gold. It's the best looking Yugoslav order in my opinion.

This one is the 1st class.

 

The Iberians have great orders too. Here is the order of SANTIAGO (Portugal)


order of Santiago, Portugal

http://lalanguedublason.blogspot.fr/2012/10/les-ordres-militaires-de-la-peninsule.html

 

the govenments sure have a lot of money for medals......those don't look cheap Skipper and YugoP

 

They aren't cheap for sure but they are fancy because they obviously need to be that way. Why? Because they are one of the highest decorations of a country and they need to look amazing.

 

Most are not standard goverment issues but enhanced pieces of art for rich officers or royalties. They were made by famous jewel craftsmen boutiques like Fabergé etc...

 

great thread with great, interesting information...thank you all

 

The left one IMHO is an attractive Military looking medal, the other two look more like fancy jewelry.

I will say, as a whole France has the most attractive decorations, a good balance between military appearance and ostentatious embelishment.

 

Soviet Order of Victory. There were 17 recipients out of which 3 of them received it twice. Michael I of Romania is the only recipient who is still alive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Victory

 

Order of Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan is a Croatian order given to the family of a person who was K.I.A. (golden class) or M.I.A. (silver class). It is called after Petar Zrinski (Croatian Ban) and Fran Krsto Frankopan (Croatian nobleman and politician). They are famous for Zrinski-Frankopan conspiracy against the Habsburg Monarchy. Both of them were decapitated in Wiener Neustadt, Austria.
Both of classes come with a tile with the persons name on it. The golden one comes with inscription "Navik on živi ki zgine pošteno" which means "Forever he lives who dies honourably".
It is one of only a few Croatian orders and medals who actually look good. Most of them look ugly in my opinion.

 

One of my favorites: the Dutch order of Oranje Nassau:

 

Nice one Skipper!

Yugoslav Order of Military Merits. There were 3 classes as it can be seen on the picture. I have the two orders in the down row in my collection.

 

Great ones too. One Serbian Medal that can be found easily in France. It was awarded to the Veterans of the French Expeditionnary corps in 1916 and many vets brough this medal home .

 

the Serbian one above looks a little 'different....somewhat 'simple', but different with the swords coming out and a concave appearance

 

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTA2OVg0ODU=/z/7twAAOSw7ThUgrq0/$_57.JPG

Beautiful medal Skipper, looks a lot like the Belgium Knights Cross.
Isn't it strange that so many different nations use the Maltese Cross in their designs?

 

No surprise Buten . Belgium was Dutch until 1830. When they became independent they got clearly inspired by already existing institutions. The Lion is a typical Low Countries symbol and can be found on heraldry in both countries . As to the Maltese cross, it it derived from the Christian traditions and the Crusades (the Templars etc..) .No wonder about every Christian nation uses it.

Here is the Wilhelmsorden also with a Lion , a Hessian order .

 

Order of Franz Joseph from Austria-Hungary.

 

Good one and the typical Bicephal eagle familiar to the Habsburgs

 

Order of Iron Trefoil from the Independent State of Croatia. It can be seen on the picture that it was influenced by the German Iron Cross.

 

Nice one, the iron Cross may have influenced this but the symbolic is rather Catholic and the colours of the ribbon are both in the Croatian Flag and in the former Austrian-Hungarian one. Even the triangular shape of the ribbon is inspired by the Austian models



Here the Hungarian order of St Stephan

 

Nice one. I love that green cross with the crown.

Here's the Order of the Yugoslav Star. It was mosty awarded to foreign heads of state.