Awards and Medal Projects of Al. I Cuza

This topic is meant to deal mainly with state orders and awards, not occasional ones like "Deputatul este inviolabil" etc.

Up until now, I've only knew about the Union Order and the Pro Virtute Militari medal.

This link shows two more: another kind of Union Order, to the left, and a Military Virtue medal to the right.

This link shows pictures of Military Virtue medal with ribbon and mentions about Devotion and Courage and Iron Cross medals.

I've seen several models of Pro Virtute Militari:



And several classes of the Union Order:




Does anyone know all the orders and medals with their respective classes?

This post has been edited by bansaraba on August 03, 2009 03:29 pm

Examples exist of a Virtutea Militara (crown not original) and Devotament si curagiu. To my knowledge they only existed in one class.

So we have one class for the medals Pro Virtute Militari, Virtutea Militara, Crucea de fier and Devotament si Curagiu and 5 for Ordinul Unirii (Knight, Officer, Commander, Grand Officer and Grand Cross).

I still don't know which class might be the award on the left, which is said to belong to Ordinul Unirii. Could it be Grand Cross?



Am gasit imaginea Crucii de Fier pe transylvanian-numismatics, se pare originalul ca se afla la Moscova, cu tezaurul:





This post has been edited by bansaraba on August 04, 2009 12:04 pm

From what I understood, the first model has the ribbon of the Virtutea Aeronautica medal, the second one having the original ribbon.

First model ??? Pro Virtute Militari has only one class and one model!
The ribbon from the left medal belongs to "Aparatorii Independentei - Defenders of independency" medal, the right one has the right colours alignment but it seems to be a self made one.
I saw you have posted my scan with the Iron Cross from the romanian numismatic forum

This post has been edited by b737 on August 04, 2009 12:36 pm

The Pro Virtute on the right is the Klietmann specimen from plate XI, item 9 & 10 in his Phaleristik Rumanien. The medal is maker marked and hallmarked on the rim and is not "self made".

This post has been edited by Cuza on August 04, 2009 12:47 pm

I don't understand why every author mention the "Devotamentu si curajiu" medal as "Devotament si curagiu"medal... I don't see the reason for this change, it is a nonsens! It is the same language

Regarding the left order ...or medal, in the exhibitons catalog it is described as a project for the Unirii (unification) order! For me it rather seems to be a masonic medal.

Congratulations, it seems to be the same medal that Klietmann has posted in his book. I think that I have seen this medal on ebay last year, am I right ?
I have suposed that the ribbon is self made not the medal! The blue stripe seems to be sewed to the rest ...

Congratulations, it seems to be the same medal that Klietmann has posted in his book. I think that I have seen this medal on ebay last year, am I right ?
I have suposed that the ribbon is self made not the medal! The blue stripe seems to be sewed to the rest ...

This medal was purchased on ebay. The blue stripe has stitching, but does not appear to be separate from the rest of the ribbon. I can send a larger pic by PM if you desire.

I meant the first image, the first ribbon model

It is probably a bibliographic error (perhaps from the 1938 Romanian Encyclopedia) that was replicated several times.

This post has been edited by bansaraba on August 04, 2009 01:59 pm

This medal was purchased on ebay. The blue stripe has stitching, but does not appear to be separate from the rest of the ribbon. I can send a larger pic by PM if you desire.

Thank you for your offer, yes , send me a better scan please

According to the existent literature,your ribbon is atypical because the stripes have the same thickness! This is another matter to say that your ribbon is self made.
The medal presented at the exhibition has the proper ribbon.

Klietmann at pg. 61 puts the Pro Virtute ribbon color widths at 6.5, 6.5, 7, 6.5, and 6.5 for the respective colors as in my specimen. He lists an alternate ribbon as the one shown in your picture.

Yes, but at the time when Klietmann has wrote and published his book,it was very hard to get informations at any romanian museum. He took his medal as scale and presumed that the other ribbons are only versions...!
Klietmann's book is not perfect and you know this

It seems the cross is alive and well at the National Military Museum in Bucharest. It was photographed and shown in colors, along with a description, in "Buletinul Muzeului Militar" nr. 7-8, Bucuresti, 2010.