Gentlemen, two Italian post war veterans replacement "Medaglia al Valore Militare" (Medal of Military Valour) both these medals are made by St u L, as part of their foreign range of awards/medals which ran alongside their 1957 range of medals. Not seen that often, but as many German soldiers were awarded this medal before 1943 they were made available to veterans.............The Silver level medal was awarded to both Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (22 April 1941) and Oberst Hans von Luck.
The medal was awarded to military personnel and civilians for exceptional valour in the face of the enemy, there are three grades/levels, Gold, Silver and Bronze.
The Gold and Silver examples I show, are of the first design of the medal, for the Kingdom of Italy with the coat of arms of Savoy.....there is a 1943-45 design for the RSI (Mussolini's "Repubblica Sociale Italiana") where the coat of arms were replaced by a Roman sword design, and after 1945 the design changed yet again, a "Star in laurel leaves" design being adopted.
These two medals exhibit a bit of the surface finish "bubbling" associated with the late produced KvK medal, so I must assume these to be late 1070's-early 1980's production...........Also notice the typical St u L jump ring assembly rather than the official italian design "bridge" style ribbon mount....although I believe St u L made that version as well (an earlier version ?).
Just got to find the Silver version for the set, the Cross of Merit/Valour was also made available to veterans by St u L.
Prost ! Steve.
The medal was awarded to military personnel and civilians for exceptional valour in the face of the enemy, there are three grades/levels, Gold, Silver and Bronze.
The Gold and Silver examples I show, are of the first design of the medal, for the Kingdom of Italy with the coat of arms of Savoy.....there is a 1943-45 design for the RSI (Mussolini's "Repubblica Sociale Italiana") where the coat of arms were replaced by a Roman sword design, and after 1945 the design changed yet again, a "Star in laurel leaves" design being adopted.
These two medals exhibit a bit of the surface finish "bubbling" associated with the late produced KvK medal, so I must assume these to be late 1070's-early 1980's production...........Also notice the typical St u L jump ring assembly rather than the official italian design "bridge" style ribbon mount....although I believe St u L made that version as well (an earlier version ?).
Just got to find the Silver version for the set, the Cross of Merit/Valour was also made available to veterans by St u L.
Prost ! Steve.
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