For review and comments......
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RonR -
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Ron,
Would you post a picture of the reverse of this Azad Hind award please. It is hard to tell if it is the Medal of Bravery or Medal of Freedom. The Medal of Bravery (VIR-I-HIND) should be gold coloured and the Medal of Freedom (TAMGHA-I-AZADI) silver coloured. I have seen A Medal of Bravery that has lost its gold colour on the Reverse. The Medal of Bravery in my collection is almost mint on the reverse but shows some rubbing on the front. Possibly from wear? The gold is very strong on both sides.
I have never seen a ribbon bar before. According to Ed Hayes in his book "MEDALS AND DECORATIONS OF INDEPENDENT INDIA", where he covers the Azad Hind medals at the back, there was a ribbon bar measuring 37 mm wide. He does not picture one of these ribbon bars in his book.
Regards,
GordonComment
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Gordon,
Here are photos of the front and reverse of the medal along with the other without swords.
The gold color has faded through the years.
Also, the ribbons on these medals measure 37mm, so a ribbon bar of the same width would be quite large I believe.
Best regards,
Ron
.........................RonRComment
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oooRonRComment
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Ron,
I agree that a ribbon bar the same width as the actual ribbon on the medal would be larger than one would expect. Since these awards were created under the TR one would expect them to be the same size as the TR ones. Or at least, the same size as the Brit ones considering Chandra Bose back ground. I tried to down load pictures of my Azad Hind awards (I have a Sher-e-Hind "Tiger of India" and a Shahid-i-Bharat "Martyr of India" with flat swords on the reverse) but I was unable to do that. We had a pop-up from Kasperski a couple of days ago and after following the program directions Windows 10 has lost a lot of its functionality. Once I get things operating normally I'll post pictures of my Azad Hind awards.
Your post was timely as I have been preparing a presentation on these awards to give to the Ottawa Branch of the Orders and Medals Research Society (OMRS) at the end of January. So I had all of my research on these awards to hand. Here are some of my thoughts on these awards as a result of my research over the years.
Original awards - Neck and breast stars had Rudolf Souval's name on the back up until the Azad Hind organization disbanded in 1961. Sometime after 1961 Souval started making the Azad Hind awards again. This time there was no name on the back of the neck and breast stars.
Original medals, with swords, suspended from a ribbon had flat backs to the swords. There are a number of theories as to why there are medals with finished swords on both sides. I have no idea why they were produced with finished swords on both sides. Or for that matter, who made them.
As the years pass, the number, and type, of Azad Hind awards seems to grow. The research waters get muddier and muddier. Somewhere there must be original regulations etc. when the Azad Hind awards were first produced. It would really help if these regulations/drawings etc. would come to light. The problem with that is, after all of these years, would we believe they are authentic?
Regards,
GordonComment
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Gordon,
Good luck on your presentation!
An old thread with some of my other examples.....
http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...highlight=Azad
Best regards,RonRComment
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Ron,
Thanks for the response and the link to your previous thread. Very useful to me. Especially Bob Hritz comment. One note re Ed's book in case you do not have a copy. He does cover the Azad Hind awards but not very well. What he has to say about them on the GMIC is much more enlightening.
Regards,
GordonComment
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Ron,
I have just bought an Azad Hind medal medal on the wrong ribbon. Do you have a source where I could purchase a good repro replacement ribbon?
Regards,
GordonComment
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Here's mine for comparison.
GregComment
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